Physical downlink control channel (pdcch) blind decoding in fifth generation (5g) new radio (nr) systems

ABSTRACT

A network device (e.g., a user equipment (UE), or a new radio NB (gNB)) can process or generate a configuration of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring in different search spaces sets independently from one another in order to manage different services optimally. A processor of the network device can be configured to receive physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates of a PDCCH in a slot for channel estimation across search spaces of the slot. Different priorities can be determined among the PDCCH candidates in the slot based on a priority rule. Then a number of PDCCH candidates can be skipped/dropped from monitoring based on the different priorities of the PDCCH candidates to ensure that a threshold level of blind decoding operations across a plurality of slots of the PDCCH is being satisfied. The UE can monitor a portion of the PDCCH candidates while concurrently skipping another.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a Continuation of patent application Ser. No. 16/361,981 filedMar. 22, 2019. This application also claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 62/646,597 filed Mar. 22, 2018, entitled“PHYSICAL DOWNLINK CONTROL CHANNEL (PDCCH) BLIND DECODING IN FIFTHGENERATION (5G) NEW RADIO SYSTEMS”, the contents of which are hereinincorporated by reference in their entirety.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to wireless technology, and morespecifically to techniques for physical downlink control channelgeneration and blind decoding for new radio (NR) systems or networkdevices of an NR network.

BACKGROUND

The Bandwidth Part (BWP) was introduced in Fifth Generation (5G) newradio (NR) systems, targeting to flexibly and dynamically configure UserEquipment (UE) operating bandwidth to achieve power efficiency.

In general, a UE can monitor a set of Physical Downlink Control Channel(PDCCH) candidates in one or more control resource sets (CORESETs) on anactive downlink (DL) BWP on each activated serving cell according tocorresponding search spaces, where monitoring implies or refers todecoding (or attempting to decode) some or all PDCCH candidates in thePDCCH candidate set according to the monitored Downlink ControlInformation (DCI) formats. A set of PDCCH candidates for a UE to monitorcan be defined in terms of PDCCH search spaces. A search space can be acommon search space (CSS) or a UE-specific search space (USS). Accordingto current NR implementations, a UE can monitor PDCCH candidates innon-discontinuous reception (DRX) slots (or slots) in one or more of thevarious defined search spaces.

For PDCCH monitoring purposes, each BWP configured to a UE can beassociated with up to about three control resource sets (CORESETs) andup to ten search space sets. In particular, the number of PDCCHcandidates per aggregation level (AL) can be independently configuredamong {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8} for each search space (SS). Monitoringperiodicities of different SS sets can be different and be selected froma set of possible values given as {1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 20} slots, forexample.

Ideally, a UE could be capable of monitoring PDCCH candidates configuredby the next generation NodeB (gNB) so that the most/optimal schedulingflexibility can be achieved. However, due to the terminal complexity andcost concerns, the maximum number of blind decoding attempts and numberof control channel elements (CCEs) for channel estimation in a UE can belimited.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example user equipments (UEs)in a network with network components useable in connection with variousaspects described herein.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating example components of a device that canbe employed in accordance with various aspects discussed herein.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating example interfaces of basebandcircuitry that can be employed in accordance with various aspectsdiscussed herein.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a system employable at a UEaccording to various aspects described herein.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a system employable at a BS (BaseStation) according to various aspects described herein.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a blind decoding attempts perslot for slot-based scheduling according to various aspects discussedherein.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of NR PDCCH candidateoverbooking according to various aspects discussed herein.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example process flow for PDCCHcandidate selection for dropping according to various aspects discussedherein.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an example method for configuring PDCCHcandidates for being dropped or skipped from monitoring according tovarious aspects described herein.

FIG. 10 illustrates a control plane protocol stack that can beimplemented for operation of various embodiments and aspects describedherein.

FIG. 11 illustrates user plane protocol stack that can be implementedfor operation of various embodiments and aspects described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure will now be described with reference to theattached drawing figures, wherein like reference numerals are used torefer to like elements throughout, and wherein the illustratedstructures and devices are not necessarily drawn to scale. As utilizedherein, terms “component,” “system,” “interface,” and the like areintended to refer to a computer-related entity, hardware, software(e.g., in execution), and/or firmware. For example, a component can be aprocessor (e.g., a microprocessor, a controller, or other processingdevice), a process running on a processor, a controller, an object, anexecutable, a program, a storage device, a computer, a tablet PC and/ora user equipment (e.g., mobile phone, etc.) with a processing device. Byway of illustration, an application running on a server and the servercan also be a component. One or more components can reside within aprocess, and a component can be localized on one computer and/ordistributed between two or more computers. A set of elements or a set ofother components can be described herein, in which the term “set” can beinterpreted as “one or more.”

Further, these components can execute from various computer readablestorage media having various data structures stored thereon such as witha module, for example. The components can communicate via local and/orremote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or moredata packets (e.g., data from one component interacting with anothercomponent in a local system, distributed system, and/or across anetwork, such as, the Internet, a local area network, a wide areanetwork, or similar network with other systems via the signal).

As another example, a component can be an apparatus with specificfunctionality provided by mechanical parts operated by electric orelectronic circuitry, in which the electric or electronic circuitry canbe operated by a software application or a firmware application executedby one or more processors. The one or more processors can be internal orexternal to the apparatus and can execute at least a part of thesoftware or firmware application. As yet another example, a componentcan be an apparatus that provides specific functionality throughelectronic components without mechanical parts; the electroniccomponents can include one or more processors therein to executesoftware and/or firmware that confer(s), at least in part, thefunctionality of the electronic components.

Use of the word exemplary is intended to present concepts in a concretefashion. As used in this application, the term “or” is intended to meanan inclusive “or” rather than an exclusive “or”. That is, unlessspecified otherwise, or clear from context, “X employs A or B” isintended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, ifX employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A and B, then “X employs Aor B” is satisfied under any of the foregoing instances. In addition,the articles “a” and “an” as used in this application and the appendedclaims should generally be construed to mean “one or more” unlessspecified otherwise or clear from context to be directed to a singularform. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms “including”, “includes”,“having”, “has”, “with”, or variants thereof are used in either thedetailed description and the claims, such terms are intended to beinclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising.” Additionally, insituations wherein one or more numbered items are discussed (e.g., a“first X”, a “second X”, etc.), in general the one or more numbereditems may be distinct or they may be the same, although in somesituations the context may indicate that they are distinct or that theyare the same.

As used herein, the term “circuitry” may refer to, be part of, orinclude an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electroniccircuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group), or associated memory(shared, dedicated, or group) operably coupled to the circuitry thatexecute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logiccircuit, or other suitable hardware components that provide thedescribed functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may beimplemented in, or functions associated with the circuitry may beimplemented by, one or more software or firmware modules. In someembodiments, circuitry may include logic, at least partially operable inhardware.

In consideration of various deficiencies or solutions described herein,the present disclosure provides various embodiments/aspects for skippingPDCCH candidates for monitoring in a radio communication system. Forexample, a processing device (e.g., UE or gNB) with acontroller/processor for processing wireless communications can identifya particular number of PDCCH candidates and a number of CCEs for channelestimations across search spaces sets for the common search spaces (CSS)and UE-specific search spaces (USS) in a slot. This identification canbe based on the higher layer configurations, by an indication signaledor one or more criteria, for example. The device can determine whetherthe total number of PDCCH candidates or a total number of CCEs exceedsthe maximum values defined in 3GPP specification. This determination canbe applied to and vary as a function of each slot, for example.

Upon determining that the total number of PDCCH candidates or totalnumber of CCEs exceeds the corresponding maximum value, the processorcan select one or more PDCCH candidates as a subset from among aplurality of PDCCH candidates as based on a priority rule. The UE canthen be configured to skip monitoring the selected PDCCH candidatewithin each slot that have a lower priority relative to other PDCCHcandidates of the slot according to the priority rule.

The priority rule, for example, can be based on the search space typei.e. CSS or USS, or other criteria. If there are multiple CSSs or USSswith a same priority in a time instance, then these search spaces can befurther prioritized based on the search space set index, which can beconfigured for each SS by higher layers, an indication, or prioritycriteria, for example. In another example, the AL of the PDCCH can be apart of the criteria for determining priority, where a higheraggregation level (AL) can have higher priority than PDCCH candidateswith lower ALs within a given search space set, for example, or viceversa, the PDCCH with a lower aggregation level (AL) have higherpriority than PDCCH candidates with higher ALs within a given searchspace set.

A 2-step mechanism can be enabled for dropping of PDCCH candidatescomprising, where the processor or UE can drop candidates as specifiedto start with the candidates at the lowest ALs within the search spaceset to first reduce the number of BDs, and when a BD-budget issatisfied, dropping or causing to drop the PDCCH candidate at highestALs to satisfy a CCE-budget or defined capacity.

Alternatively, or additionally, the processor can compute a priorityfactor for each PDCCH candidate in the USS. Based on the values of thepriority order, monitoring can be skipped for a set of PDCCH candidatesin a multiple CORESETS and UE-specific search spaces selected. Aniteration from the first step here can be done with re-calculatingpriority factor to select the PDCCH candidates for dropping or skipmonitoring until the number of PDCCH candidates and the number of CCEsfor channel estimation fit within the maximum values. This priorityfactor can be defined as β(p,s,L)=1/M_(p,s) ^((L)), wherein p is thecontrol resource set index; s represents the search space index 0≤s≤9;L∈{1,2,4,8,16} is the aggregation level; and M_(p,s) ^((L)): number ofPDCCH candidates for AL L within search space index s of controlresource set p. For an AL L, if M_(p,s) ^((L))=0, then β(p,s,L)=1. Assuch, the PDCCH candidates within the smallest β(p,s,L) across all theinvolved search spaces sets in the given slot could be selected forbeing dropped or skipped from monitoring.

If multiple PDCCH candidates with a same or different ALs were selecteddue to a same value of priority order, the processor or device, forexample, can select the dropped PDCCH candidates at least based onaggregation levels (ALs), PDCCH candidate index, search space index,CORESET index or a combination of thereof. The PDCCH candidate withlower (or higher) AL and lower (or higher) PDCCH candidate index in theSS with lower or higher index can be selected for dropping. In otheraspects, the PDCCH candidate in the lower AL that reduces the largestnumber of CCEs in the slot can be selected for dropping. The priorityfactor can be defined as θ(p,s,L)=1/(L*M_(p,s) ^((L)), wherein L denotesthe AL value of PDCCH candidate.

In an aspect, the process or device can determine the BDs for a searchspace based on PDCCH candidates of all USS configured by RRC signalingand the maximum number of PDCCH candidates attempts in the UE-specificSearch Space (USS) per slot. Additionally, or alternatively, the maximumnumber of CCEs for channel estimation for this search space can bedetermined based on all CCEs across all the USS CORESETs and the maximumnumber of CCEs defined in a 3GPP specification.

The following representation can denote the number of BDs for AL L in aUE-specific search space s_(uss)(0≤s_(uss)<S_(uss)) and CCEs for aCORESET p_(uss) (0≤p_(uss)<P_(uss)) by M_(p) _(uss) _(,s) _(uss) ^(p)′and C_(PDCCH) ^(p) ^(uss) ′ respectively. Then the scaled value of M_(p)_(uss) _(,s) _(uss) ^((L))′ and the size of C_(PDCCH) ^(p)′ is given by:

${M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{{(L)}\prime} = \left\lfloor {\frac{M_{PDCCH}^{\max,{slot}}}{s_{uss}} \cdot \frac{M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{(L)}}{\Sigma_{L}M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{(L)}}} \right\rfloor};{C_{{PDCCH}^{\cdot}}^{p_{uss}\prime} = \left\lfloor \frac{C_{PDCCH}^{P_{uss}}}{P_{uss}} \right\rfloor};$

wherein M_(p) _(uss) _(,s) _(uss) ^((L)) is the PDCCH candidates of AL Lconfigured by RRC signaling for search space s_(uss) in CORESET p_(uss)before scaling; M_(PDCCH) ^(max,slot) denotes the maximum number ofPDCCH candidates attempts in the UE-specific Search Space per slot andper serving cell; C_(PDCCH) ^(p) ^(uss) denotes the maximum number ofCCEs for channel estimation across all the P_(uss) CORESETS; S_(uss) isthe total number of UE-specific SS; P_(uss) is the total number ofCORESETS consisting of UE-specific SS; M_(p) _(uss) _(,s) _(uss) ^((L))′is the actual number of blind decoding for USS s_(uss); C_(PDCCH) ^(p)^(uss) ′ is the actual number of CCEs for channel estimation for USSs_(uss).

In another alternative, the PDCCH candidates for AL L could bedetermined according to the following representation for all UE-specificSS:

${M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{{(L)}\prime} = \left\lfloor \frac{M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{(L)} \cdot M_{PDCCH}^{\max,{slot}}}{\Sigma_{p_{uss}}\Sigma_{s_{uss}}M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{(L)}} \right\rfloor},$

wherein M_(p) _(uss) _(,s) _(uss) ^((L)) is the PDCCH candidates of AL Lconfigured by RRC signaling for search space s_(uss) in CORESET p_(uss)before scaling; M_(PDCCH) ^(max,slot) denote the maximum number of PDCCHcandidates attempts in the UE-specific Search Space per slot and perserving cell; S_(uss) is the total number of UE-specific SS; and M_(p)_(uss) _(,s) _(uss) ^((L))′ is the actual number of blind decoding forUSS s_(uss).

In other aspects, the UE can take into account the following relativepriority in decreasing order for CSS: Type 0-PDCCH CSS for a downlinkcontrol information (DCI) format with CRC scrambled by a systeminformation (SI) radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) (SI-RNTI);Type 1-PDCCH CSS for a DCI format with CRC scrambled by a random accessRNTI (RA-RNTI); Type 2-PDCCH CSS for a DCI format with CRC scrambled bya paging RNTI (P-RNTI); Type 3-PDCCH CSS for a DCI format with CRCscrambled by interruption RNTI (INT-RNTI), or slot format indicationRNTI (SFI-RNTI), or transmit power control (TPC) physical uplink sharedchannel (PUSCH) RNTI (TPC-PUSCH-RNTI), or TPC-physical uplink controlchannel (PUCCH)-RNTI, or TPC-sounding reference symbols (SRS)-RNTI, orcell RNTI (C-RNTI), or configured scheduling RNTI(s) (CS-RNTI(s), ortemporary cell (TC) RNTI (TC-RNTI), or semi-persistent channel stateinformation RNTI (SP-CSI-RNTI).

For example, the order for the CSS can comprise:SI-RNTI>P-RNTI>RA-RNTI>other RNTIs in Type 3-PDCCH CSS. For carrieraggregation (CA) cases, the priority can be as follows: the CC Index(lowest CC index has higher priority)>BWP index (lowest BWP index hashigher priority)>CSS>USS, or it can be CC Index >CSS>BWP>USS, forexample.

Additional aspects and details of the disclosure further described belowwith reference to figures.

Embodiments described herein can be implemented into a system or networkdevice using any suitably configured hardware and/or software. FIG. 1illustrates an architecture of a system 100 of a network in accordancewith some embodiments. The system 100 is illustrated to include a UE 101and a UE 102, which can further represent new radio (NR) devices asdiscussed herein.

In embodiments or aspects, any one or more of the UEs 101 and 102 cancomprise a vehicular/drone/Internet of Things (IoT) UE device or IoTdevice, which can comprise a network access layer. These devices canalso utilize technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M) ormachine-type communications (MTC) for exchanging data with an MTC serveror device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), Proximity-BasedService (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communication, sensornetworks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data can be amachine-initiated exchange of data. An IoT network describesinterconnecting IoT UEs, which can include uniquely identifiableembedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), withshort-lived connections. The IoT UEs can execute background applications(e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate theconnections of the IoT network.

The UEs 101 and 102 can be configured to connect, communicativelycouple, or operably couple with a radio access network (RAN) 110—the RAN110 can be, for example, an Evolved Universal Mobile TelecommunicationsSystem (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), a NextGen RAN(NG RAN), or some other type of RAN. The UEs 101 and 102 utilizeconnections 103 and 104, respectively, each of which comprises aphysical communications interface or layer (discussed in further detailbelow); in this example, the connections 103 and 104 are illustrated asan air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistentwith cellular communications protocols, such as a Global System forMobile Communications (GSM) protocol, a code-division multiple access(CDMA) network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, a PTT overCellular (POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System(UMTS) protocol, a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, a fifthgeneration (5G) protocol, a New Radio (NR) protocol, and the like.

In this embodiment, the UEs 101 and 102 can further directly exchangecommunication data via a ProSe interface 105. The ProSe interface 105can alternatively be referred to as a sidelink interface comprising oneor more logical channels, including but not limited to a PhysicalSidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel(PSSCH), a Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel (PSDCH), and a PhysicalSidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH).

The UE 102 is shown to be configured to access an access point (AP) 106via connection 107. The connection 107 can comprise a local wirelessconnection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11protocol, wherein the AP 106 would comprise a wireless fidelity (WiFi®)router. In this example, the AP 106 is shown to be connected to theInternet without connecting to the core network of the wireless system(described in further detail below).

The RAN 110 can include one or more access nodes that enable theconnections 103 and 104. These access nodes (ANs) can be referred to asbase stations (BSs), NodeBs, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), next GenerationNodeBs (gNB), RAN nodes, and so forth, as well as vehicle network nodesincluding V2X nodes or the like. They can be referred to as RAN nodesherein and also comprise ground stations (e.g., terrestrial accesspoints) or satellite stations providing coverage within a geographicarea (e.g., a cell). The RAN 110 can thus include one or more RAN nodesfor providing macrocells, e.g., macro RAN node 111, and one or more RANnodes for providing femtocells or picocells (e.g., cells having smallercoverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared tomacrocells), e.g., low power (LP) RAN node 112.

Any of the RAN nodes 111 and 112 can terminate the air interfaceprotocol and can be the first point of contact for the UEs 101 and 102.In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 111 and 112 can fulfillvarious logical functions for the RAN 110 including, but not limited to,radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearermanagement, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management anddata packet scheduling, and mobility management.

In accordance with some embodiments, the UEs 101 and 102 can beconfigured to communicate using Orthogonal Frequency-DivisionMultiplexing (OFDM) communication signals with each other or with any ofthe RAN nodes 111 and 112 over a multicarrier communication channel inaccordance various communication techniques, such as, but not limitedto, an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)communication technique (e.g., for downlink communications) or a SingleCarrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) communicationtechnique (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications),although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.The OFDM signals can comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlinktransmissions from any of the RAN nodes 111 and 112 to the UEs 101 and102, while uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. The gridcan be a time-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time-frequencyresource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in eachslot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practicefor OFDM systems, which makes it intuitive for radio resourceallocation. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds toone OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration ofthe resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radioframe. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted asa resource element. Each resource grid comprises a number of resourceblocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels toresource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection ofresource elements; in the frequency domain, this can represent thesmallest quantity of resources that currently can be allocated. Thereare several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed usingsuch resource blocks.

The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) can carry user data andhigher-layer signaling to the UEs 101 and 102. The physical downlinkcontrol channel (PDCCH) can carry information about the transport formatand resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among otherthings. It can also inform the UEs 101 and 102 about the transportformat, resource allocation, and Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (H-ARQ)information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlinkscheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to theUE 102 within a cell) can be performed at any of the RAN nodes 111 and112 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs101 and 102. The downlink resource assignment information can be sent onthe PDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs 101 and 102.

The PDCCH can use control channel elements (CCEs) to convey the controlinformation. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCHcomplex-valued symbols can first be organized into quadruplets, whichcan then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching.Each PDCCH can be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, whereeach CCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elementsknown as resource element groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase ShiftKeying (QPSK) symbols can be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH can betransmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of thedownlink control information (DCI) and the channel condition. There canbe four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with differentnumbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation level, L=1, 2, 4, 8, 16).

Some embodiments can use concepts for resource allocation for controlchannel information that are an extension of the above-describedconcepts. For example, some embodiments can utilize an enhanced physicaldownlink control channel (EPDCCH (or ePDCCH)) that uses PDSCH resourcesfor control information transmission. The EPDCCH can be transmittedusing one or more enhanced the control channel elements (ECCEs). Similarto above, each ECCE can correspond to nine sets of four physicalresource elements known as an enhanced resource element groups (EREGs).An ECCE can have other numbers of EREGs in some situations. The RAN 110is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network (CN) 120—via anS1 interface 113. In embodiments, the CN 120 can be an evolved packetcore (EPC) network, a NextGen Packet Core (NPC) network, or some othertype of CN. In this embodiment the S1 interface 113 is split into twoparts: the S1-U interface 114, which carries traffic data between theRAN nodes 111 and 112 and the serving gateway (S-GW) 122, and theS1-mobility management entity (MME) interface 115, which is a signalinginterface between the RAN nodes 111 and 112 and MMEs 121.

In this embodiment, the CN 120 comprises the MMEs 121, the S-GW 122, thePacket Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) 123, and a home subscriberserver (HSS) 124. The MMEs 121 can be similar in function to the controlplane of legacy Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) SupportNodes (SGSN). The MMEs 121 can manage mobility aspects in access such asgateway selection and tracking area list management. The HSS 124 cancomprise a database for network users, including subscription-relatedinformation to support the network entities' handling of communicationsessions. The CN 120 can comprise one or several HSSs 124, depending onthe number of mobile subscribers, on the capacity of the equipment, onthe organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 124 canprovide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization,naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc.

The S-GW 122 can terminate the S1 interface 113 towards the RAN 110, androutes data packets between the RAN 110 and the CN 120. In addition, theS-GW 122 can be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN nodehandovers and also can provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Otherresponsibilities can include lawful intercept, charging, and some policyenforcement.

The P-GW 123 can terminate an SGi interface toward a PDN. The P-GW 123can route data packets between the EPC network 120 and external networkssuch as a network including the application server 130 (alternativelyreferred to as application function (AF)) via an Internet Protocol (IP)interface 125. Generally, the application server 130 can be an elementoffering applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network(e.g., UMTS Packet Services (PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). Inthis embodiment, the P-GW 123 is shown to be communicatively coupled toan application server 130 via an IP communications interface 125. Theapplication server 130 can also be configured to support one or morecommunication services (e.g., Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP)sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networkingservices, etc.) for the UEs 101 and 102 via the CN 120.

The P-GW 123 can further be a node for policy enforcement and chargingdata collection. Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCRF) 126 isthe policy and charging control element of the CN 120. In a non-roamingscenario, there can be a single PCRF in the Home Public Land MobileNetwork (HPLMN) associated with a UE's Internet Protocol ConnectivityAccess Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with localbreakout of traffic, there can be two PCRFs associated with a UE'sIP-CAN session: a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) within a HPLMN and a Visited PCRF(V-PCRF) within a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). The PCRF126 can be communicatively coupled to the application server 130 via theP-GW 123. The application server 130 can signal the PCRF 126 to indicatea new service flow and select the appropriate Quality of Service (QoS)and charging parameters. The PCRF 126 can provision this rule into aPolicy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) (not shown) with theappropriate traffic flow template (TFT) and QoS class of identifier(QCI), which commences the QoS and charging as specified by theapplication server 130.

FIG. 2 illustrates example components of a device 200 in accordance withsome embodiments. In some embodiments, the device 200 can includeapplication circuitry 202, baseband circuitry 204, Radio Frequency (RF)circuitry 206, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 208, one or moreantennas 210, and power management circuitry (PMC) 212 coupled togetherat least as shown. The components of the illustrated device 200 can beincluded in a UE or a RAN node, such as UE 101/102, or eNB/gNB 111/112.In some embodiments, the device 200 can include less elements (e.g., aRAN node can not utilize application circuitry 202, and instead includea processor/controller to process IP data received from an EPC). In someembodiments, the device 200 can include additional elements such as, forexample, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, or input/output (I/O)interface. In other embodiments, the components described below can beincluded in more than one device (e.g., said circuitries can beseparately included in more than one device for Cloud-RAN (C-RAN)implementations).

The application circuitry 202 can include one or more applicationprocessors. For example, the application circuitry 202 can includecircuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core ormulti-core processors. The processor(s) can include any combination ofgeneral-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphicsprocessors, application processors, etc.). The processors can be coupledwith or can include memory/storage and can be configured to executeinstructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applicationsor operating systems to run on the device 200. In some embodiments,processors of application circuitry 202 can process IP data packetsreceived from an EPC.

The baseband circuitry 204 can include circuitry such as, but notlimited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. Thebaseband circuitry 204 can include one or more baseband processors orcontrol logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signalpath of the RF circuitry 206 and to generate baseband signals for atransmit signal path of the RF circuitry 206. Baseband processingcircuity 204 can interface with the application circuitry 202 forgeneration and processing of the baseband signals and for controllingoperations of the RF circuitry 206. For example, in some embodiments,the baseband circuitry 204 can include a third generation (3G) basebandprocessor 204A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 204B, afifth generation (5G) baseband processor 204C, or other basebandprocessor(s) 204D for other existing generations, generations indevelopment or to be developed in the future (e.g., second generation(2G), sixth generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 204 (e.g.,one or more of baseband processors 204A-D) can handle various radiocontrol functions that enable communication with one or more radionetworks via the RF circuitry 206. In other embodiments, some or all ofthe functionality of baseband processors 204A-D can be included inmodules stored in the memory 204G and executed via a Central ProcessingUnit (CPU) 204E. The radio control functions can include, but are notlimited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radiofrequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulationcircuitry of the baseband circuitry 204 can include Fast-FourierTransform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demappingfunctionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of thebaseband circuitry 204 can include convolution, tail-biting convolution,turbo, Viterbi, or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoderfunctionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation andencoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples and caninclude other suitable functionality in other embodiments.

In addition, the memory 204G (as well as other memory componentsdiscussed herein, e.g., memory 430 of FIG. 4, memory 530 of FIG. 5 orthe like) can comprise one or more machine-readable medium/mediaincluding instructions that, when performed by a machine or componentherein cause the machine to perform acts of the method or of anapparatus or system for concurrent communication using multiplecommunication technologies according to embodiments and examplesdescribed herein. It is to be understood that aspects described hereincan be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, or any combinationthereof. When implemented in software, functions can be stored on ortransmitted over as one or more instructions or code on acomputer-readable medium (e.g., the memory described herein or otherstorage device). Computer-readable media includes both computer storagemedia and communication media including any medium that facilitatestransfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storagemedia or a computer readable storage device can be any available mediathat can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer.By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media cancomprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage,magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or othertangible and/or non-transitory medium, that can be used to carry orstore desired information or executable instructions. Also, anyconnection can also be termed a computer-readable medium. For example,if software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remotesource using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digitalsubscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio,and microwave, then coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL,or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave areincluded in the definition of medium.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 can include one or moreaudio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 204F. The audio DSP(s) 204F canbe include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellationand can include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments.Components of the baseband circuitry can be suitably combined in asingle chip, a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board insome embodiments. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituentcomponents of the baseband circuitry 204 and the application circuitry202 can be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on achip (SOC).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 can provide forcommunication compatible with one or more radio technologies. Forexample, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 can supportcommunication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network(EUTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wirelesslocal area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN).Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 204 is configured to supportradio communications of more than one wireless protocol can be referredto as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

RF circuitry 206 can enable communication with wireless networks usingmodulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. Invarious embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 can include switches, filters,amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wirelessnetwork. RF circuitry 206 can include a receive signal path which caninclude circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEMcircuitry 208 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry204. RF circuitry 206 can also include a transmit signal path which caninclude circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by thebaseband circuitry 204 and provide RF output signals to the FEMcircuitry 208 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 206 caninclude mixer circuitry 206 a, amplifier circuitry 206 b and filtercircuitry 206 c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RFcircuitry 206 can include filter circuitry 206 c and mixer circuitry 206a. RF circuitry 206 can also include synthesizer circuitry 206 d forsynthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 206 a of thereceive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments,the mixer circuitry 206 a of the receive signal path can be configuredto down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 208 based onthe synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 206 d. Theamplifier circuitry 206 b can be configured to amplify thedown-converted signals and the filter circuitry 206 c can be a low-passfilter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwantedsignals from the down-converted signals to generate output basebandsignals. Output baseband signals can be provided to the basebandcircuitry 204 for further processing. In some embodiments, the outputbaseband signals can be zero-frequency baseband signals, although thisis not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 206 a of thereceive signal path can comprise passive mixers, although the scope ofthe embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206 a of the transmit signalpath can be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on thesynthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 206 d togenerate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 208. The basebandsignals can be provided by the baseband circuitry 204 and can befiltered by filter circuitry 206 c.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206 a of the receive signalpath and the mixer circuitry 206 a of the transmit signal path caninclude two or more mixers and can be arranged for quadraturedownconversion and upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, themixer circuitry 206 a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry206 a of the transmit signal path can include two or more mixers and canbe arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In someembodiments, the mixer circuitry 206 a of the receive signal path andthe mixer circuitry 206 a can be arranged for direct downconversion anddirect upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixercircuitry 206 a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206 aof the transmit signal path can be configured for super-heterodyneoperation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input basebandsignals can be analog baseband signals, although the scope of theembodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternateembodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signalscan be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RFcircuitry 206 can include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) anddigital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry204 can include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RFcircuitry 206.

In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry can beprovided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope ofthe embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 206 d can be afractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer, although thescope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other typesof frequency synthesizers can be suitable. For example, synthesizercircuitry 206 d can be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequencymultiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with afrequency divider.

The synthesizer circuitry 206 d can be configured to synthesize anoutput frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 206 a of the RFcircuitry 206 based on a frequency input and a divider control input. Insome embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 206 d can be a fractionalN/N+1 synthesizer.

In some embodiments, frequency input can be provided by avoltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement.Divider control input can be provided by either the baseband circuitry204 or the applications processor 202 depending on the desired outputfrequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) can bedetermined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by theapplications processor 202.

Synthesizer circuitry 206 d of the RF circuitry 206 can include adivider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phaseaccumulator. In some embodiments, the divider can be a dual modulusdivider (DMD) and the phase accumulator can be a digital phaseaccumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD can be configured todivide the input signal by either N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry out)to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, theDLL can include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phasedetector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments,the delay elements can be configured to break a VCO period up into Ndequal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in thedelay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to helpensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 206 d can be configured togenerate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in otherembodiments, the output frequency can be a multiple of the carrierfrequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrierfrequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and dividercircuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency withmultiple different phases with respect to each other. In someembodiments, the output frequency can be a LO frequency (fLO). In someembodiments, the RF circuitry 206 can include an IQ/polar converter.

FEM circuitry 208 can include a receive signal path which can includecircuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or moreantennas 210, amplify the received signals and provide the amplifiedversions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 206 for furtherprocessing. FEM circuitry 208 can also include a transmit signal pathwhich can include circuitry configured to amplify signals fortransmission provided by the RF circuitry 206 for transmission by one ormore of the one or more antennas 210. In various embodiments, theamplification through the transmit or receive signal paths can be donesolely in the RF circuitry 206, solely in the FEM 208, or in both the RFcircuitry 206 and the FEM 208.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 208 can include a TX/RX switch toswitch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEMcircuitry can include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path.The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry can include an LNA toamplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RFsignals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 206). The transmitsignal path of the FEM circuitry 208 can include a power amplifier (PA)to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 206), andone or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission(e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 210).

In some embodiments, the PMC 212 can manage power provided to thebaseband circuitry 204. In particular, the PMC 212 can controlpower-source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DCconversion. The PMC 212 can often be included when the device 200 iscapable of being powered by a battery, for example, when the device isincluded in a UE. The PMC 212 can increase the power conversionefficiency while providing desirable implementation size and heatdissipation characteristics.

While FIG. 2 shows the PMC 212 coupled only with the baseband circuitry204. However, in other embodiments, the PMC 212 can be additionally oralternatively coupled with, and perform similar power managementoperations for, other components such as, but not limited to,application circuitry 202, RF circuitry 206, or FEM 208.

In some embodiments, the PMC 212 can control, or otherwise be part of,various power saving mechanisms of the device 200. For example, if thedevice 200 is in an RRC_Connected state, where it is still connected tothe RAN node as it expects to receive traffic shortly, then it can entera state known as Discontinuous Reception Mode (DRX) after a period ofinactivity. During this state, the device 200 can power down for briefintervals of time and thus save power.

If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time,then the device 200 can transition off to an RRC_Idle state, where itdisconnects from the network and does not perform operations such aschannel quality feedback, handover, etc. The device 200 goes into a verylow power state and it performs paging where again it periodically wakesup to listen to the network and then powers down again. The device 200can not receive data in this state, in order to receive data, it musttransition back to RRC_Connected state.

An additional power saving mode can allow a device to be unavailable tothe network for periods longer than a paging interval (ranging fromseconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is totallyunreachable to the network and can power down completely. Any data sentduring this time incurs a large delay and it is assumed the delay isacceptable.

Processors of the application circuitry 202 and processors of thebaseband circuitry 204 can be used to execute elements of one or moreinstances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the basebandcircuitry 204, alone or in combination, can be used to execute Layer 3,Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the applicationcircuitry 204 can utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from theselayers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (e.g., transmissioncommunication protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP) layers).As referred to herein, Layer 3 can comprise a radio resource control(RRC) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein,Layer 2 can comprise a medium access control (MAC) layer, a radio linkcontrol (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP)layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1can comprise a physical (PHY) layer of a UE/RAN node, described infurther detail below.

FIG. 3 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry inaccordance with some embodiments. As discussed above, the basebandcircuitry 204 of FIG. 2 can comprise processors 204A-204E and a memory204G utilized by said processors. Each of the processors 204A-204E caninclude a memory interface, 304A-304E, respectively, to send/receivedata to/from the memory 204G.

The baseband circuitry 204 can further include one or more interfaces tocommunicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as a memoryinterface 312 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from memoryexternal to the baseband circuitry 204), an application circuitryinterface 314 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from theapplication circuitry 202 of FIG. 2), an RF circuitry interface 316(e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry 206 ofFIG. 2), a wireless hardware connectivity interface 318 (e.g., aninterface to send/receive data to/from Near Field Communication (NFC)components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi®components, and other communication components), and a power managementinterface 320 (e.g., an interface to send/receive power or controlsignals to/from the PMC 212).

Referring to FIG. 4, illustrated is a block diagram of a system/device400 employable at a UE or other network device (e.g., UE 101/102) thatfacilitates DCI configurations to reduce the decoding complexity andsignaling overhead for 5G NR devices as UE 101/102, for example. System400 can include one or more processors 410 (e.g., one or more basebandprocessors such as one or more of the baseband processors discussed inconnection with FIG. 2 and/or FIG. 3) comprising processing circuitryand associated interface(s) (e.g., one or more interface(s) discussed inconnection with FIG. 3), transceiver circuitry 420 (e.g., comprisingpart or all of RF circuitry 206, which can comprise transmittercircuitry (e.g., associated with one or more transmit chains) and/orreceiver circuitry (e.g., associated with one or more receive chains)that can employ common circuit elements, distinct circuit elements, or acombination thereof), and a memory 430 (which can comprise any of avariety of storage mediums and can store instructions and/or dataassociated with one or more of processor(s) 410 or transceiver circuitry420).

Referring to FIG. 5, illustrated is a block diagram of a system 500employable at a Base Station (BS), eNB, gNB or other network device(e.g., aV2X node as eNB/gNB 111/112) that can enable generation andprocessing of configurable search spaces and related resources (e.g.,times, time instances, CCEs, aggregation levels, or the like) for one ormore UEs (e.g., URLLC UEs, or non-URLLC UEs) according to variousaspects described herein. System 500 can include one or more processors510 (e.g., one or more baseband processors such as one or more of thebaseband processors discussed in connection with FIG. 2 and/or FIG. 3)comprising processing circuitry and associated interface(s) (e.g., oneor more interface(s) discussed in connection with FIG. 3), communicationcircuitry 520 (e.g., which can comprise circuitry for one or more wired(e.g., X2, etc.) connections and/or part or all of RF circuitry 206,which can comprise one or more of transmitter circuitry (e.g.,associated with one or more transmit chains) or receiver circuitry(e.g., associated with one or more receive chains), wherein thetransmitter circuitry and receiver circuitry can employ common circuitelements, distinct circuit elements, or a combination thereof), andmemory 530 (which can comprise any of a variety of storage mediums andcan store instructions and/or data associated with one or more ofprocessor(s) 510 or communication circuitry 520). In various aspects,system 500 can be included within an Evolved Universal Terrestrial RadioAccess Network (E-UTRAN) Node B (Evolved Node B, eNodeB, or eNB), nextgeneration Node B (gNodeB or gNB) or other base station or TRP(Transmit/Receive Point) in a wireless communications network. In someaspects, the processor(s) 510, communication circuitry 520, and thememory 530 can be included in a single device, while in other aspects,they can be included in different devices, such as part of a distributedarchitecture.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating table 600 that can be comprised bymemory of a network device for determining or assessing blind decodingattempts/operations per slot for slot-based scheduling to schedule DLgrants, UL grants, symbols or other communication resources in 5G or newradio (NR) specifications. Scheduling can be done on a subframe basisfor both downlink and uplink resources, for example, where each subframecomprises two equally sized slots and in turn include a number oforthogonal frequency division modulation (OFDM) symbols.

Memory 204G, 430, or 530, for example, can include the table 600. A UE400, for example, can monitor a set of PDCCH candidates in one or morecontrol resource sets (CORESETs) on an active DL BWP on each activatedserving cell according to corresponding search spaces, where monitoringimplies decoding (or attempting to decode) some or all PDCCH candidatesin the PDCCH candidate set according to the monitored Downlink ControlInformation (DCI) formats or types. A set of PDCCH candidates for the UE400 to monitor can be defined in terms of PDCCH search spaces. A searchspace can be a CSS or a USS. According to current NR implementations, aUE can monitor PDCCH candidates in non-discontinuous reception (DRX)slots in one or more of the following search spaces, for example: Type0-PDCCH CSS for a DCI format with cyclic redundancy check (CRC)scrambled by a system information (SI) radio network temporaryidentifier (RNTI) (SI-RNTI); Type 1-PDCCH CSS for a DCI format with CRCscrambled by a random access RNTI (RA-RNTI); Type 2-PDCCH CSS for a DCIformat with CRC scrambled by a paging RNTI (P-RNTI); Type 3-PDCCH CSSfor a DCI format with CRC scrambled by interruption RNTI (INT-RNTI), orslot format indication RNTI (SFI-RNTI), or transmit power control (TPC)physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) RNTI (TPC-PUSCH-RNTI), orTPC-physical uplink control channel (PUCCH)-RNTI, or TPC-soundingreference symbols (SRS)-RNTI, or cell RNTI (C-RNTI), or configuredscheduling RNTI(s) (CS-RNTI(s), or temporary cell (TC) RNTI (TC-RNTI),or semi-persistent channel state information RNTI (SP-CSI-RNTI), andUE-specific search space for a DCI format with CRC scrambled by C-RNTIor CS-RNTI(s).

For PDCCH monitoring purposes, each BWP configured to a UE can beassociated with up to three control resource sets (CORESETs) and up toten search space sets. In particular, the number of PDCCH candidates peraggregation level (AL) can be independently configured among {0, 1, 2,3, 4, 5, 6, 8} for each SS. Monitoring periodicities of different SS (orSS sets) can be different and be selected from a set of possible valuesgiven as {1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 20} slots. A UE 400 could be capable ofmonitoring PDCCH candidates configured by gNB 500 so that the mostscheduling flexibility can be achieved. However, due to the terminalcomplexity and cost concerns, the maximum number of blind decodingattempts and number of control channel elements (CCEs) for channelestimation in a UE is typically limited. For NR, UEs (e.g., 400, 101, or102) can support channel estimation capability for following numbers ofCCEs for a given slot per scheduled cell for slot-based schedulingdepending on the subcarrier spacing (SCS), for example, as follows: 56CCEs for SCS=15 kHz and 30 kHz; 48 CCEs for SCS=60 kHz; and 32 CCEs forSCS=120 kHz.

The number of CCEs for PDCCH channel estimation can refer to a union ofthe sets of CCEs for PDCCH candidates to be monitored, regardless ofwhich Resource Element Group (REG)-bundle size or pre-coder granularity.Furthermore, the maximum number of PDCCH BDs per slot can be agreed toaccording to table 600, taking into account the tradeoff betweenscheduling flexibility and UE complexity aspects.

NR communication systems or NR capable network devices support a vastvariety of services, and corresponding search space sets can usedifferent PDCCH monitoring periodicities. To manage different servicesin an optimal manner, the UE 400 or gNB 500, for example, can configurevia one or more processors PDCCH monitoring in different search spacesets independently from each other. As a consequence, the number of BDsconfigured for a given UE 400, for example, can vary from slot to slot,such as, for example, according to the number of search space setsmonitored in the slot.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an overbooking of PDCCH blind decodingoperations in accord with various aspects for NR communications.

In NR, the BDs of a respective SS can be semi-statically configured andhence not necessarily changed in a dynamic manner (e.g. based on thecombination of SS in a given slot). Although a possibility would be toleave this for the gNB (e.g., gNB 500) to configure the total number ofBDs or CCEs for channel estimation such that it does not exceed themaximum values in any slot, such a delegation of processing couldscarify the UE processing capability and limit the schedulingflexibility such as in other slots other than slot n and n+8, forexample, where an overbooking beyond a threshold limit (e.g., 44 orother number) can occur. Hence, it would be desirable to introduceover-booking processes or rules of the BDs for some time instances (i.e.slot n, n+4 and n+8) so as to avoid the blind decoding restriction onother monitoring occasions where the BDs could be below the maximumnumber of BDs and CCEs.

In the example of FIG. 7, a UE (e.g., 400) can be configured withmultiple common search spaces (CSS) 710, 720, 730 and UE-specific searchspace (USS) 740 and 750 with periodicity of 1/4/8 slots, respectively.For example, the CSS 710 can be every 8 slots, CSS 720 and 730 every 4slots, and the USS 740 and 750 could be every one slot. In particular,the blind decoding attempts for each of the search spaces can beconfigured by higher layer signaling (e.g., radio resource control(RRC)), an indication signaled or based on one or more related prioritycriteria or rule. For example, the blind decoding attempts for each ofthe search spaces can be configured by RRC, in one exampleconfiguration, as follows: the CSS 110 (e.g. Type 0-PDCCH CSS forSI-RNTI), where 4 PDCCH candidates can be for aggregation level 4 (AL4), and 2 for AL 8, and 1 for AL16; the CSS 720/730 can include 6candidates for each SS, including 4 PDCCH candidates for AL 4 and 2 forAL 8; and USS 7407150 can have 16 PDCCH candidates for each SS, whichcan comprise 6 for AL1, 6 for AL 2, 2 for AL 4 and 2 for AL 8 (i.e.,6+6+2+2=16 candidates). Other candidate configurations could also beenvisioned. Due to the varied periodicity of PDCCH monitoring occasions,the total number of BDs in a given slot can be varied due to differentcombinations of SSs. In some slots (e.g. slot n and n+8), the totalnumber of BDs could exceed the maximum BDs threshold level or number ofCCEs (e.g. 44 in case of SCS=15, as illustrated in FIG. 6).

To support overbooking of the BDs and CCEs and avoid misalignmentbetween gNB 500 and UE 400, for example, the number of BDs and CCEs ofchannel estimation can be reduced down to the levels in some slots inresponse to the corresponding values exceeding the minimum requirementsor threshold level specified. The exemplary approaches, aspects orembodiments herein can be performed to drop the PDCCH candidates by thegNB 500 and skip/disregard monitoring parts of PDCCH candidates at theUE 400 by exploiting at least the nature of (or as a function of) theSS, aggregation levels or DCI types transmitted in the SS in cases whenthe total number of BDs or total number of CCEs across one or more SSsets in a slot exceeds the threshold value.

Embodiments herein provide various mechanisms for performing the PDCCHtransmission and PDCCH monitoring. In various embodiments, the UE 400,for example, can determine whether to skip monitoring of some PDCCHcandidates based at least in part on the control resource set index,aggregation levels or a combination of them.

According to various embodiments, the search spaces (SS) that the UE 400monitors PDCCH candidates can be further categorized into CSS orUE-specific search space (USS) as demonstrated as follows so that theCSS can comprise: A Type 0-PDCCH CSS for a DCI format with CRC scrambledby a SI-RNTI on a primary cell (PCell); A Type 1-PDCCH CSS for a DCIformat with CRC scrambled by a RA-RNTI on a PCell; A Type2-PDCCH CSS fora DCI format with CRC scrambled by a P-RNTI on a PCell; A Type 3-PDCCHCSS for a DCI format with CRC scrambled by INT-RNTI, or SFI-RNTI, orTPC-PUSCH-RNTI, or TPC-PUCCH-RNTI, or TPC-SRS-RNTI, or C-RNTI, orCS-RNTI(s), or TC-RNTI, or SP-CSI-RNTI; and the USS for a DCI formatwith CRC can be scrambled by C-RNTI, or CS-RNTI(s), or TC-RNTI, orSP-CSI-RNTI.

The following can be specified (see, TS 38.213, version 15.0.1) so thatdenote by s_(css) a set of search space sets s_(css) for common searchspaces in a corresponding set p_(css) of control resource sets p_(css)and by S_(uss) a set of search space sets s_(uss) for UE-specific searchspaces in a corresponding set P_(uss) of control resource sets p_(uss)where a UE monitors PDCCH candidates in a slot. If

${{{\sum\limits_{\underset{p_{css} \in P_{css}}{s_{css} \in S_{css}}}{\sum\limits_{L}M_{p_{css},s_{css}}^{(L)}}} + {\sum\limits_{\underset{p_{uss} \in P_{uss}}{s_{uss} \in S_{uss}}}{\sum\limits_{L}M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{(L)}}}} > M_{PDCCH}^{\max,{slot}}},$

the UE monitors

$M_{PDCCH}^{css} = {\min\left( {M_{PDCCH}^{\max,{slot}},{\sum\limits_{\underset{p_{css} \in P_{css}}{s_{css} \in S_{css}}}{\sum\limits_{L}M_{p_{css},s_{css}}^{(L)}}}} \right)}$

PDCCH candidates for the common search spaces and M_(PDCCH)^(uss)=M_(PDCCH) ^(max,slot)−M_(-PDCCH) ^(css) PDCCH candidates forUE-specific search spaces in the slot.

Various embodiments herein provide mechanisms for the dropping one ormore PDCCH candidates in case the number of PDCCH candidates in theUE-specific search space within a slot duration, based on the RRCconfiguration of the search space set(s) provided to the UE 400, is lessthan M_(PDCCH) ^(uss).

In various embodiments, for PDCCH candidates monitoring, the Kconfigured search spaces can be assigned priorities in a given slotbased on the search space type (i.e., CSS or USS). For instance, theCSSs can have the highest priority and USSs can have a lower priority inorder to ensure the delivery of broadcast or paging or RAR messages overunicast data message.

If there are multiple CSSs or USSs with a same priority in a timeinstance (e.g., slot n), then these search spaces can be furtherprioritized based on the search space set index that can be configuredfor each SS by higher layers, a signaled indication or a priority rule.For example, the search space set with the lower index can beprioritized for transmission over that with the higher index inconsideration for dropping or skipping when the threshold has beenexceeded, for example.

Additionally, or alternatively, within a given search space set, thePDCCH with a higher aggregation level (AL) can be prioritized over PDCCHcandidates with lower ALs in order to ensure the robustness of PDCCH andavoid the shortage of larger AL candidates, but causing larger overhead.Additionally, or alternatively, the PDCCH with a lower AL can bemonitored to minimize the blocking probability. In some embodiments, thePDCCH candidate that reduces the largest number of CCEs is dropped firstin case of multiple PDCCH candidates for the selected highest or lowestAL.

In aspects herein, within a given search space set, dropping ofcandidates at higher ALs can be performed or configured help withreducing of the overall number of CCEs needed for channel estimation ina slot and thereby, help in meeting the CCE-budget (CCE thresholdamount) for a slot to keep within the threshold value. On the otherhand, dropping of candidates at lower ALs can help with prioritizationof higher AL candidates and help in meeting the BD-budget (BD thresholdamount) for a slot.

Thus, in various embodiments, for dropping of candidates from within agiven search space set, the UE could be configured via higher layersignaling, and indication or a predefined priority rule as to whethercandidates starting from highest or starting from lowest ALs are to bedropped in events of BD- or CCE-budget violation, which can beassociated with the threshold value (e.g., 44 or other) for BDs andprevention of overbooking, for example.

Additionally, or alternatively, the choice between either dropping ofcandidates starting from the highest or lowest ALs in a slot can beimplicitly determined depending on whether the CCE-budget or theBD-budget is exceeded respectively. As such, rather than receiving anRRC signal or an indication of the priority for dropping, the UE 400 canascertain this order itself based on one or more priority criteria for apre-defined priority rule, for example, or based on predefinedspecification criteria for priority order of dropping PDCCH candidatesfrom being monitored in BDs for channel estimation.

In case both budgets are exceeded (the CCE and BDs causing the number ofcandidates for BDs to be exceeded from the threshold), a two-stepmechanism for dropping of PDCCH candidates can be specified. In anexample, the dropping of candidates can be specified to start with thecandidates at the lowest ALs within the search space set to first reducethe number of BDs, and then, once the BD-budget is satisfied, drop thecandidates at highest ALs to satisfy the CCE-budget. Such dropping rulescan be defined to be used as further alternatives to or variants of oneor more priority rules, as described further below with respect to FIG.8.

In other embodiments, the number of BD candidates could nevernecessarily exceed the specified BD-budget per slot, and it is possiblethat only the CCE-budget can be exceeded, in which case the candidatedropping mechanisms described herein can be applied.

In some embodiments, the UE 400 can compute a priority or priorityfactor for the PDCCH candidates, for example, in order to rank themwithin the slot across search spaces (e.g., CSS, USS or the like). Forexample, the priority factor can be defined as: β(p,s,L)=1/M_(p,s)^((L)), wherein p is the control resource set index; s represents thesearch space index 0≤s≤9; L∈{1,2,4,8,16} is the aggregation level;M_(p,s) ^((L)): number of PDCCH candidates for AL L within search spaceindex s of control resource set p. For an AL L, if M_(p,s) ^((L))=0,then β(p,s,L)=1. This priority factor definition follows the principleof starting to drop PDCCH candidates from search spaces at AL L thathave the highest number of candidates configured for monitoring (M_(p,s)^((L))).

Referring to FIG. 8, illustrated an example process flow 800 forprocessing, configuring, or selection of PDCCH candidates in a slot fordropping or skipping from monitoring for channel estimation.

The process flow or method 800 for selectively skipping PDCCH candidatesmonitoring in a multiple CORESETS and UE-specific search spaces for NRsystems can be based on the priority values of a priority order. For agiven slot, the PDCCH candidates can be dropped due to the slotexceeding either the maximum/threshold blind decoding or CCEs forchannel estimation.

The process flow 800 initiates at 802, and at 804 comprises a decisionas to whether the total number of PDCCH candidates in a particular slotexceeds a maximum or threshold number of blind decoding attempts (blinddecoding budget). The threshold or maximum can be defined by the TS(e.g., as illustrated in FIG. 6), or signaled from higher layersignaling. Alternatively, or additionally, the decision can includedetermining whether a total number of CCEs of the PDCCH exceed a maximumnumber of CCEs (a CCE budget). If no, to both questions, the processflow ends at 806.

If yes, however, the process flows to 808 where a priority factorβ(p,s,L) can be calculated for each of the ALs (L) in search space (s)and CORESET (p). Then at 810, the PDCCH candidates within the smallestβ(p,s,L) across all the involved search spaces sets in this said slotcan be selected first to drop from monitoring in order to satisfy thethreshold levels.

At 812, if more than one PDCCH candidates is selected the process flowsto 814, but if not, then the process flow is directed to 816 to skipmonitoring the selected PDCCH candidate at the UE (e.g., 400).

At 814, in case of multiple PDCCH candidates with a same or differentALs were selected due to a same value of priority order, differentoptions can be used to select the dropped PDCCH candidates, which isdetermined based on AL, PDCCH candidate index, search space index,CORESET index or a combination thereof.

In one optional embodiment at 816, the PDCCH with the lower (or higher)AL and lower (or higher) PDCCH candidate index in the SS with lower orhigher index selected in the 810 can be first dropped. Alternatively, oradditionally, in another second option embodiment, the PDCCH candidatein the lower AL can be selected in the act 808 that reduces the numberof CCEs in the slot, i.e., reduces the footprint of CCEs the most can bedropped first.

The process flow 800 can then be iterated from 808 with re-calculatingβ(p,s,L) to select the PDCCH candidates for dropping or to skipmonitoring according to the priority factor until the number of PDCCHcandidates and the number of CCEs for channel estimation fit within themaximum values.

In other embodiments, a two-step approach can be followed. According tothis embodiment, if both the BD-budget and the CCE-budget are exceeded,then the process flow 800 can be iterated until the number of PDCCHcandidates satisfy the BD budget in a slot, and then, the procedure canbe repeated but with a different priority factor (different fromβ(p,s,L)) or different PDCCH candidate selection rule compared to thealternative selected in 814. As an example, for the first set ofiterations, the first aspect/embodiment can be used with dropping of thePDCCH candidate at lower AL or higher index, but for a second iterationor set of iterations, the second option embodiment can be performed forselecting candidates to be dropped.

In other embodiments, the priority factor can be defined as:θ(p,s,L)=1/(L*M_(p,s) ^((L)). Compared to the priority factor β(p,s,L),the priority factor θ(p,s,L) additionally aims to incorporate the spanof the M_(p,s) ^((L)) candidates at AL L in terms of the number of CCEs.

Alternatively, or additionally, another embodiment can include evenlypartitioning the PDCCH candidates and CCEs numbers by dividing themaximum BD/CCEs number equally among the number of involved CORESETs orSearch Spaces in the slot. Each of the sub-BD/CCEs then can be furtherdivided into the number of ALs, which can be termed as “AL proportionalpartition among SS” approach. For example, this can involve denoting thenumber of BD for AL L in a UE-specific search spaces_(uss)(0≤s_(uss)<S_(uss)) and CCEs for a CORESETp_(uss)(0≤p_(uss)<P_(uss)) by M_(p) _(uss) _(,s) _(uss) ^((L))′ andC_(PDCCH) ^(p) ^(uss) ′ respectively. Then the scaled value of M_(p)_(uss) _(,s) _(uss) ^((L))′ and the size of C_(PDCCH) ^(p)′ is given by:

${M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{{(L)}\prime} = \left\lfloor {\frac{M_{PDCCH}^{\max,{slot}}}{s_{uss}} \cdot \frac{M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{(L)}}{\Sigma_{L}M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{(L)}}} \right\rfloor};{C_{{PDCCH}^{\cdot}}^{p_{uss}\prime} = \left\lfloor \frac{C_{PDCCH}^{P_{uss}}}{P_{uss}} \right\rfloor};$

wherein M_(p) _(uss) _(,s) _(uss) ^((L)) is the PDCCH candidates of AL Lconfigured by RRC signaling for search space s_(uss) in CORESET p_(uss)before scaling; M_(PDCCH) ^(max,slot) denotes the maximum number ofPDCCH candidates attempts in the UE-specific Search Space per slot andper serving cell; C_(PDCCH) ^(p) ^(uss) : denotes the maximum number ofCCEs for channel estimation across all the P_(uss) CORESETS; S_(uss):denotes the total number of UE-specific SS; P_(uss): denotes the totalnumber of CORESETS consisting of UE-specific SS.

In other embodiments, the PDCCH candidates for ALL can be determined canbe represented as follows for all UE-specific search spaces:

$M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{{(L)}\prime} = {\left\lfloor \frac{M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{(L)} \cdot M_{PDCCH}^{\max,{slot}}}{\Sigma_{p_{uss}}\Sigma_{s_{uss}}M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{(L)}} \right\rfloor.}$

This AL proportional partition can be less complex; However, onedisadvantage is that for CORESET with small number of USS sets or CCEsfor PDCCH monitoring that is configured by RRC, the UE processingcapability can be wasted. Further aspects or embodiments can includecases when the number of PDCCH candidates in the common search spacewithin a slot duration, based on the RRC configuration of the searchspace set(s) provided to the UE and/or based on the configuration in theMaster Information Block (MIB) carried by the NR PBCH, is less thanM_(PDCCH) ^(max,slot).

In other embodiments, for the CSS prioritization, the UE 400 can takeinto account the following relative priority in decreasing order: Type0-PDCCH CSS for a DCI format with CRC scrambled by a SI-RNTI; Type1-PDCCH CSS for a DCI format with CRC scrambled by a RA-RNTI; Type2-PDCCH CSS for a DCI format with CRC scrambled by a P-RNTI; Type3-PDCCH CSS for a DCI format with CRC scrambled by INT-RNTI, orSFI-RNTI, or TPC-PUSCH-RNTI, or TPC-PUCCH-RNTI, or TPC-SRS-RNTI, orC-RNTI, or CS-RNTI(s), or TC-RNTI, or SP-CSI-RNTI.

In other words, the partition of PDCCH candidates monitoring searchspace sets can be determined at least based on the RNTI and a particularordering is given as follows: SI-RNTI>RA-RNTI>P-RNTI>other RNTIs inType3-PDCCH CSS, which means the SI-RNTI has the highest priority order.

In some other embodiments, the paging with P-RNTI can be prioritizedover RA-RNTI as paging is used to inform the UE 400 about essentialevents such as system information changes, incoming call, and emergencymessage such as Earthquake & Tsunami Warning System (ETWS).Correspondingly, the priority order for CSS can be given, or configuredas follows: SI-RNTI>P-RNTI>RA-RNTI>other RNTIs in Type3-PDCCH CSS.

In other embodiments, the paging with P-RNTI can be prioritized overSI-RNTI as follows: P-RNTI>SI-RNTI>RA-RNTI>other RNTIs in Type3-PDCCHCSS. This can be selected because P-RNTI is used to inform UE aboutcritical information update (e.g., ETWS). While, system information canbe transmitted multiple times by network and hence the UE can stillacquire the system information at the next instance. Further, in variousembodiments, for any prioritization between SI-RNTI, RA-RNTI, P-RNTI,and C-RNTI, dropping of the corresponding PDCCH candidates in commonsearch space based on RNTI prioritization can be applied for a pair ofRNTIs that correspond to different PDCCH BDs, while for PDCCH candidateswith different RNTIs that correspond to the same BD attempt can betreated at the same priority level. In other embodiments, if configuredto monitor for DCI format 2_0 in a slot carried by PDCCH in commonsearch space with CRC scrambled with SFI-RNTI, the PDCCH candidates incommon search space with CRC scrambled by SFI-RNTI can be alwaysprioritized and not be dropped.

According to certain aspects, for more than one configured serving cell,when the UE 400 monitors PDCCH candidates in the slot for CSS and USS,which exceed the maximum number of PDCCH candidates or maximum CCEs forchannel estimation across all CCs, a UE can skip monitoring the PDCCHwith DCI format 0-0/1-0 in the USS for the secondary serving cell.

According to other aspects, for more than one active DL BWPs in acarrier, when the UE 400 monitors PDCCH candidates in a slot for CSS andUSS, which exceed the maximum number of PDCCH candidates or maximum CCEsfor channel estimation across all BWPs, a UE can skip monitoring thePDCCH with DCI format 0-0/1-0 in the USS for all BWPs except the activeBWP with lowest BWP index.

Additionally, or alternatively, the priority order for partitioning ofthe PDCCH monitoring candidates can be given as follows: CC Index (e.g.,lowest CC index with a higher priority)>BWP index (e.g., lowest BWPindex with higher priority)>CSS>USS.

In other aspects, taking into account the importance of broadcastmessage over unicast data, the priority order can be determined asfollows: CC Index>CSS>BWP>USS. This second option can be applied if, incase it is specified that for a UE configured with multiple active DLBWPs, the UE 400 can only be configured to monitor CSS in no more than asingle active DL BWP.

According to other aspects, an explicit signaling can be the gNB 500,for example can be implemented. For example, a SS priority order can bedefined and signaled per search space as part of search spaceconfiguration by higher layers. The priority rules defined above orherein can be used to determine the PDCCH monitoring candidates for SSwith a same priority order. The gNB 500, for example, for example, candetermine which value of priority order to signal to the terminal basedon any one or a combination of these factors: search space type (i.e.CSS or USS); RNTI values configured for PDCCH monitoring; or Aggregationlevels of PDCCH candidates.

In some embodiments, when the number of determined CCEs according to thenumber of selected PDCCH candidates exceeds the maximum CCEs of channelestimation, the CCEs associated with the PDCCH candidates with thelowest priority can be dropped until the number of CCEs for whichchannel estimation is to be performed by UE does not exceed the maximumCCEs number. The priority orders for the PDCCH candidates are determinedusing the aforementioned approaches or embodiments herein.

In other embodiments, the CCEs dropping can be at least based on theCORESET index. For example, all the PDCCH candidates in the highest orlowest CORESET can be dropped until the maximum blind decoding and CCEnumber requirement are both met.

Various additional aspects of the present disclosure are directed to howto treat the PDCCH candidates that have not been selected formonitoring, for the case when the number of CCEs for channel estimationhas reached the maximum value but the number of PDCCH candidates formonitoring is still less than the maximum threshold.

In some embodiments, the remaining PDCCH candidates are simply notmonitored by the UE for this case, which could however result inexcessive PDCCH candidates dropping.

In other embodiments, to address this problem, a PDCCH candidate istransmitted if the following condition is met: all CCEs of the PDCCHcandidate is fully filled in the footprint of the already selected PDCCHcandidates in the CORESETs as it is not increased the number of CCEs forchannel estimation.

According to other embodiments, a method for allocating the remainingPDCCH candidate can include to remap them to the REs in the footprint ofthe already selected PDCCH candidates in the CORESET(s) so as to avoidincreasing the CCEs number. This method provides full flexibility inPDCCH candidates monitoring to always utilize the maximum PDCCHcandidates.

According to other embodiments, if hierarchical search space design withthe configuration of pseudo PDCCH candidates as described in[R1-1803264] is adopted to define the hashing function for UE-specificsearch space sets, then in case when the BD-budget or the CCE-budget ina slot is exceeded, the UE can start to drop PDCCH candidates that mapto the CCEs occupied by the pseudo PDCCH candidates.

According to other embodiments, if the UE (e.g., 400) is configured withmore than one PDCCH monitoring occasions within a slot according to thehigher layer parameter monitoringSymbolsWithinSlot and the total numberof PDCCH candidates or CCEs for channel estimation exceeds therespective maximum values defined in 3GPP specification as describedearlier, the lower (or higher) monitoring instance can be given a lowerpriority for PDCCH candidates dropping.

Referring to FIG. 9, illustrated an example process flow 900 forprocessing or configuring PDCCH candidates to be dropped or skipped.

At 902, the process flow comprises processing physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH) candidates of a PDCCH in a slot to perform channelestimation across search spaces in the slot.

At 904, the process flow 900 includes selectively determining a numberof PDCCH candidates to be dropped from monitoring based on a priorityrule and different priorities of the PDCCH candidates.

At 906, the process flow 900 includes satisfying a threshold level ofblind decoding operations across a plurality of slots of the PDCCH bymonitoring at least a portion of the PDCCH candidates while concurrentlyskipping another portion of the PDCCH candidates comprising the numberof PDCCH candidates in the slot.

In other aspects, the process flow can include determining whether atotal number of PDCCH candidates or a total number of control channelelements (CCEs) in the slot exceeds a predefined value for the thresholdlevel of blind decoding operations. Priority factors can be calculatedfor aggregation levels in a search space and a control resource set, andbased on the determination and the priority factors, the number of PDCCHcandidates can be selected to be skipped to satisfy the predefinedvalue.

In response to a blind decoding budget and a CCE budget being exceeded,selectively determining the number of PDCCH candidates to be skippedfrom monitoring by a two-step mechanism comprising: skipping the anotherportion of the PDCCH candidates starting with the PDCCH candidates at alowest aggregation level (AL) from among the ALs of the search spaces inthe slot to reduce the blind decoding operations; and skipping a PDCCHcandidate at a higher AL, or a lower AL, from among the ALs of thesearch spaces that satisfies the CCE budget.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of a control plane protocol stack inaccordance with various embodiments described herein. In thisembodiment, a control plane 1000 is shown as a communications protocolstack between the UE 101 (or alternatively, the UE 102), the RAN node111 (or alternatively, the RAN node 112), and the MME 121.

The PHY layer 1001 may transmit or receive information used by the MAClayer 1002 over one or more air interfaces. The PHY layer 1001 mayfurther perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC),power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization andhandover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers, suchas the RRC layer 1005. The PHY layer 1001 may still further performerror detection on the transport channels, forward error correction(FEC) coding/decoding of the transport channels, modulation/demodulationof physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto physicalchannels, and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna processing.

The MAC layer 1002 may perform mapping between logical channels andtransport channels, multiplexing of MAC service data units (SDUs) fromone or more logical channels onto transport blocks (TB) to be deliveredto PHY via transport channels, de-multiplexing MAC SDUs to one or morelogical channels from transport blocks (TB) delivered from the PHY viatransport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, schedulinginformation reporting, error correction through hybrid automatic repeatrequest (HARQ), and logical channel prioritization.

The RLC layer 1003 may operate in a plurality of modes of operation,including: Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), andAcknowledged Mode (AM). The RLC layer 1003 may execute transfer of upperlayer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction through automaticrepeat request (ARQ) for AM data transfers, and concatenation,segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfers.The RLC layer 1003 may also execute re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs forAM data transfers, reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transfers,detect duplicate data for UM and AM data transfers, discard RLC SDUs forUM and AM data transfers, detect protocol errors for AM data transfers,and perform RLC re-establishment.

The PDCP layer 1004 may execute header compression and decompression ofIP data, maintain PDCP Sequence Numbers (SNs), perform in-sequencedelivery of upper layer PDUs at re-establishment of lower layers,eliminate duplicates of lower layer SDUs at re-establishment of lowerlayers for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM, cipher and decipher controlplane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification ofcontrol plane data, control timer-based discard of data, and performsecurity operations (e.g., ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection,integrity verification, etc.).

The main services and functions of the RRC layer 1005 may includebroadcast of system information (e.g., included in Master InformationBlocks (MIBs) or System Information Blocks (SIBs) related to thenon-access stratum (NAS)), broadcast of system information related tothe access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance and releaseof an RRC connection between the UE and E-UTRAN (e.g., RRC connectionpaging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, andRRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance andrelease of point to point Radio Bearers, security functions includingkey management, inter radio access technology (RAT) mobility, andmeasurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. Said MIBs andSIBs may comprise one or more information elements (IEs), which may eachcomprise individual data fields or data structures.

The UE 101 and the RAN node 111 may utilize a Uu interface (e.g., anLTE-Uu interface) to exchange control plane data via a protocol stackcomprising the PHY layer 1001, the MAC layer 1002, the RLC layer 1003,the PDCP layer 1004, and the RRC layer 1005.

The non-access stratum (NAS) protocols 1006 form the highest stratum ofthe control plane between the UE 101 and the MME 121. The NAS protocols1006 support the mobility of the UE 101 and the session managementprocedures to establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE 101and the P-GW 123.

The S1 Application Protocol (S1-AP) layer 1015 may support the functionsof the S1 interface and comprise Elementary Procedures (EPs). An EP is aunit of interaction between the RAN node 111 and the CN 120. The S1-APlayer services may comprise two groups: UE-associated services and nonUE-associated services. These services perform functions including, butnot limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UEcapability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transport, RANInformation Management (RIM), and configuration transfer.

The Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) layer (alternativelyreferred to as the SCTP/IP layer) 1014 may ensure reliable delivery ofsignaling messages between the RAN node 111 and the MME 121 based, inpart, on the IP protocol, supported by the IP layer 1013. The L2 layer1012 and the L1 layer 1011 may refer to communication links (e.g., wiredor wireless) used by the RAN node and the MME to exchange information.

The RAN node 111 and the MME 121 may utilize an S1-MME interface toexchange control plane data via a protocol stack comprising the L1 layer1011, the L2 layer 1012, the IP layer 1013, the SCTP layer 1014, and theS1-AP layer 1015.

FIG. 11 is an illustration of a user plane protocol stack in accordancewith one or more embodiments herein. In this embodiment, a user plane1100 is shown as a communications protocol stack between the UE 101 (oralternatively, the UE 102), the RAN node 111 (or alternatively, the RANnode 112), the S-GW 122, and the P-GW 123. The user plane 1100 mayutilize at least some of the same protocol layers as the control plane1000. For example, the UE 101 and the RAN node 111 may utilize a Uuinterface (e.g., an LTE-Uu interface) to exchange user plane data via aprotocol stack comprising the PHY layer 1001, the MAC layer 1002, theRLC layer 1003, the PDCP layer 1004.

The General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol for the userplane (GTP-U) layer 1104 may be used for carrying user data within theGPRS core network and between the radio access network and the corenetwork. The user data transported can be packets in any of IPv4, IPv6,or PPP formats, for example. The UDP and IP security (UDP/IP) layer 1103may provide checksums for data integrity, port numbers for addressingdifferent functions at the source and destination, and encryption andauthentication on the selected data flows. The RAN node 111 and the S-GW122 may utilize an S1-U interface to exchange user plane data via aprotocol stack comprising the L1 layer 1111, the L2 layer 1012, theUDP/IP layer 1103, and the GTP-U layer 1104. The S-GW 122 and the P-GW123 may utilize an 55/58 a interface to exchange user plane data via aprotocol stack comprising the L1 layer 1011, the L2 layer 1012, theUDP/IP layer 1103, and the GTP-U layer 1104. As discussed above withrespect to FIG. 10, NAS protocols support the mobility of the UE 101 andthe session management procedures to establish and maintain IPconnectivity between the UE 101 and the P-GW 123.

As it is employed in the subject specification, the term “processor” canrefer to substantially any computing processing unit or deviceincluding, but not limited to including, single-core processors;single-processors with software multithread execution capability;multi-core processors; multi-core processors with software multithreadexecution capability; multi-core processors with hardware multithreadtechnology; parallel platforms; and parallel platforms with distributedshared memory. Additionally, a processor can refer to an integratedcircuit, an application specific integrated circuit, a digital signalprocessor, a field programmable gate array, a programmable logiccontroller, a complex programmable logic device, a discrete gate ortransistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combinationthereof designed to perform the functions and/or processes describedherein. Processors can exploit nano-scale architectures such as, but notlimited to, molecular and quantum-dot based transistors, switches andgates, in order to optimize space usage or enhance performance of mobiledevices. A processor can also be implemented as a combination ofcomputing processing units.

In the subject specification, terms such as “store,” “data store,” “datastorage,” “database,” and substantially any other information storagecomponent relevant to operation and functionality of a component and/orprocess, refer to “memory components,” or entities embodied in a“memory,” or components including the memory. It is noted that thememory components described herein can be either volatile memory ornonvolatile memory, or can include both volatile and nonvolatile memory.

By way of illustration, and not limitation, nonvolatile memory, forexample, can be included in a memory, non-volatile memory (see below),disk storage (see below), and memory storage (see below). Further,nonvolatile memory can be included in read only memory, programmableread only memory, electrically programmable read only memory,electrically erasable programmable read only memory, or flash memory.Volatile memory can include random access memory, which acts as externalcache memory. By way of illustration and not limitation, random accessmemory is available in many forms such as synchronous random accessmemory, dynamic random access memory, synchronous dynamic random accessmemory, double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory,enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory, Synchlink dynamicrandom access memory, and direct Rambus random access memory.Additionally, the disclosed memory components of systems or methodsherein are intended to include, without being limited to including,these and any other suitable types of memory.

Examples can include subject matter such as a method, means forperforming acts or blocks of the method, at least one machine-readablemedium including instructions that, when performed by a machine (e.g., aprocessor with memory, an application-specific integrated circuit(ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or the like) cause themachine to perform acts of the method or of an apparatus or system forconcurrent communication using multiple communication technologiesaccording to embodiments and examples described herein.

Example 1 can include a method for skipping PDCCH candidates formonitoring in a radio communication system, the method comprising:Identifying or causing to identify the number of PDCCH candidates andnumber of CCEs for channel estimations across all search spaces sets forall the common search spaces (CSS) and UE-specific search spaces (USS)in a slot based on the higher layer configurations; and determining orcausing to determine whether the total number of PDCCH candidates ortotal number of CCEs exceeds the maximum values defined in 3GPPspecification; and upon determining either total number of PDCCHcandidate or total number of CCEs exceeds the corresponding maximumvalue, selecting or causing to select a plurality of PDCCH candidatebased on a priority rule; and skipping monitoring or causing to skipmonitoring the selected PDCCH candidate in this slot which have a lowerpriority in according to the said priority rule.

Example 2 can include the method of example 1 and/or some other examplesherein, wherein the priority rule comprises: determining or causing todetermine the priority rule to select PDCCH candidates to skipmonitoring at least based on the search space type i.e. CSS or USS.

Example 3 can include the method of example 2 and/or some other examplesherein, wherein the CSSs can have the highest priority and USSs can havea lower priority.

Example 4 can include the method of example 3 and/or some other examplesherein, wherein if there are multiple CSSs or USSs with a same priorityin a time instance, then these search spaces can be further prioritizedbased on the search space set index that is configured for each SS byhigher layers.

Example 5 can include the method of example 4 and/or some other examplesherein, wherein the PDCCH with a higher aggregation level (AL) havehigher priority than PDCCH candidates with lower ALs within a givensearch space set.

Example 6 can include the method of example 4 and/or some other examplesherein, wherein the PDCCH with a lower aggregation level (AL) havehigher priority than PDCCH candidates with higher ALs within a givensearch space set.

Example 7 can include the method of example 4 and/or some other examplesherein, wherein the priority order is configured by higher layersignaling with respect to starting from highest or starting from lowestALs for PDCCH candidates dropping.

Example 8 can include the method of example 1 and/or some other examplesherein, wherein further comprising a 2-step mechanism for dropping ofPDCCH candidates comprising: dropping or causing to drop candidates canbe specified to start with the candidates at the lowest ALs within thesearch space set to first reduce the number of BDs, and when theBD-budget is satisfied, dropping or causing to drop the PDCCH candidateat highest ALs to satisfy the CCE-budget.

Example 9 can include the method of example 1 and/or some other examplesherein, further comprising: computing or causing to compute a priorityfactor for each PDCCH candidate in the USS; skipping monitoring orcausing to skip monitoring a set of PDCCH candidates in a multipleCORESETS and UE-specific search spaces selected at least based on thevalues of the said priority order; and iterating or causing to iteratefrom the first step with re-calculating priority factor to select thePDCCH candidates for dropping or skip monitoring until the number ofPDCCH candidates and the number of CCEs for channel estimation fitwithin the maximum values.

Example 10 can include the method of example 9 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein the priority factor is defined asβ(p,s,L)=1/M_(p,s) ^((L)), wherein p is the control resource set index;s represents the search space index 0≤s≤9; L∈{1,2,4,8,16} is theaggregation level; and M_(p,s) ^((L)): number of PDCCH candidates for ALL within search space index s of control resource set p. For an AL L, ifM_(p,s) ^((L))=0, then β(p,s,L)=1.

Example 11 can include the method of example 10 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein the PDCCH candidates within the smallestβ(p,s,L) across all the involved search spaces sets in this said slotwere selected.

Example 12 can include the method of example 11 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein if multiple PDCCH candidates with a same ordifferent ALs were selected due to a same value of priority order,selecting the dropped PDCCH candidates at least based on aggregationlevels (ALs), PDCCH candidate index, search space index, CORESET indexor a combination of them.

Example 13 can include the method of example 12 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein the PDCCH candidate with lower (or higher) ALand lower (or higher) PDCCH candidate index in the SS with lower orhigher index were selected for dropping.

Example 14 can include the method of example 12 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein the PDCCH candidate in the lower AL thatreduces the largest number of CCEs in the slot was selected fordropping.

Example 15 can include the method of example 9 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein the priority factor is defined asθ(p,s,L)=1/(L*M_(p,s) ^((L))), wherein L denotes the AL value of PDCCHcandidate.

Example 16 can include the method of example 1 and/or some otherexamples herein, further comprising: determining or causing to determinethe BDs for a search space based on PDCCH candidates of all USSconfigured by RRC signaling and the maximum number of PDCCH candidatesattempts in the UE-specific Search Space per slot; and determining orcausing to determine the maximum number of CCEs for channel estimationfor this said search space based on all CCEs across all the USS CRESETsand the maximum number of CCEs defined in specification.

Example 17 can include the method of example 16 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein:

${{M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{{(L)}\prime} = \left\lfloor {\frac{M_{PDCCH}^{\max,{slot}}}{s_{uss}} \cdot \frac{M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{(L)}}{\Sigma_{L}M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{(L)}}} \right\rfloor};{C_{{PDCCH}^{\cdot}}^{p_{uss}\prime} = \left\lfloor \frac{C_{PDCCH}^{P_{uss}}}{P_{uss}} \right\rfloor}},$

wherein M_(p) _(uss) _(,s) _(uss) ^((L)) the PDCCH candidates of AL Lconfigured by RRC signaling for search space s_(uss) in CORESET p_(uss)before scaling; M_(PDCCH) ^(max,slot) denote the maximum number of PDCCHcandidates attempts in the UE-specific Search Space per slot and perserving cell; C_(pDCCH) ^(p) ^(uss) denotes the maximum number of CCEsfor channel estimation across all the P_(uss) CORESETS; S_(uss) is thetotal number of UE-specific SS; M_(p) _(uss) _(,s) _(uss) ^((L))′ is theactual number of blind decoding for USS s_(uss); C_(PDCCH) ^(p) ^(uss) ′is the actual number of CCEs for channel estimation for USS s_(uss).

Example 18 can include the method of example 16 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein:

$M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{{(L)}\prime} = {\left\lfloor \frac{M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{(L)} \cdot M_{PDCCH}^{\max,{slot}}}{\Sigma_{p_{uss}}\Sigma_{s_{uss}}M_{p_{uss},s_{uss}}^{(L)}} \right\rfloor.}$

Example 18.5 can include the method of example 18 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein M_(p) _(uss) _(,s) _(uss) ^((L)) is the PDCCHcandidates of AL L configured by RRC signaling for search space s_(uss)in CORESET p_(uss) before scaling; M_(PDCCH) ^(max,slot) denote themaximum number of PDCCH candidates attempts in the UE-specific SearchSpace per slot and per serving cell; S_(uss) is the total number ofUE-specific SS; and M_(p) _(uss) _(,s) _(uss) ^((L))′ is the actualnumber of blind decoding for USS s_(uss).

Example 19 can include the method of example 1 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein UE shall take into account the followingrelative priority in decreasing order for CSS:Type0-PDCCH CSS for a DCIformat with CRC scrambled by a SI-RNTI; Type1-PDCCH CSS for a DCI formatwith CRC scrambled by a RA-RNTI; Type2-PDCCH CSS for a DCI format withCRC scrambled by a P-RNTI; Type3-PDCCH CSS for a DCI format with CRCscrambled by INT-RNTI, or SFI-RNTI, or TPC-PUSCH-RNTI, orTPC-PUCCH-RNTI, or TPC-SRS-RNTI, or C-RNTI, or CS-RNTI(s), or TC-RNTI,or SP-CSI-RNTI.

Example 20 can include the method of example 1 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein the CSS comprises: SI-RNTI>P-RNTI>RA-RNTI>otherRNTIs in Type3-PDCCH CSS.

Example 21 can include the method of example 1 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein, for carrier aggregation (CA) case, CC Index(lowest CC index has higher priority)>BWP index (lowest BWP index hashigher priority)>CSS>USS.

Example 22 can include the method of example 1 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein, for carrier aggregation (CA) case, CCIndex>CSS>BWP>USS.

Example 23 is an apparatus configured to be employed in a User Equipment(UE) for new radio (NR) communications comprising: one or moreprocessors configured to: receive physical downlink control channel(PDCCH) candidates of a PDCCH in a slot to perform channel estimationacross search spaces of the slot; determine different priorities amongthe PDCCH candidates in the slot based on a priority rule; selectivelydetermine a number of PDCCH candidates to be skipped from monitoringbased on the different priorities of the PDCCH candidates to ensure thata threshold level of blind decoding operations across a plurality ofslots of the PDCCH is being satisfied; and monitor a portion of thePDCCH candidates while concurrently skipping another portion of thePDCCH candidates comprising the number of PDCCH candidates in the slot;a radio frequency (RF) interface, configured to provide, to RFcircuitry, data for processing the PDCCH candidates.

Example 24 includes the subject matter of Example 23, wherein the one ormore processors are further configured to: generate a determination ofwhether a total number of PDCCH candidates or a total number of controlchannel elements (CCEs) in the slot exceeds a predefined value for thethreshold level of blind decoding operations; and based on thedetermination, select the number of PDCCH candidates to be skipped tosatisfy the predefined value.

Example 25 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 23-24,wherein the priority rule comprises a set of criteria comprising one ormore of: a search space type from among the search spaces comprising acommon search space (CSS) and a UE-specific search space (USS), anaggregation level (AL), a predefined priority order, a PDCCH candidateindex, a search space index, a component carrier (CC) index, or abandwidth part index, for determining the priorities of the PDCCHcandidates.

Example 26 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 23-25,wherein the priority rule indicates that CSSs of the search spacescomprise a higher priority than USSs of the search spaces in the slot.

Example 27 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 23-26,wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: prioritizethe search spaces according to a search space index configured for thesearch spaces by a higher layer signaling in response to the prioritiescomprising a plurality of CSSs or a plurality of USSs with a samepriority.

Example 28 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 23-27,wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: determinethe priorities of the PDCCH candidates in the slot based on a higherlayer signaling providing that a lower AL, or a higher AL, for PDCCHcandidates are dropped from monitoring first in a priority order.

Example 29 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 23-28,wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:selectively determine the number of PDCCH candidates to be skipped frommonitoring by a two-step mechanism comprising: starting with the PDCCHcandidates at a lowest AL, or a highest AL, from among the ALs of thesearch spaces in the slot to reduce the blind decoding operations; andin response to a blind decoding budget or the threshold level of blinddecoding operations being satisfied, skipping a PDCCH candidate at ahighest AL, or a lowest AL, from among the ALs of the search spaces tosatisfy a CCE budget.

Example 30 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 23-29,wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: compute apriority factor for the PDCCH candidates in a USS of the search spaces;skip from monitoring a subset of the PDCCH candidates in a plurality ofcontrol CORESETS and UE-specific search spaces of the search spaces thatis selected based on priority values of a priority order of a set ofcriteria; and iterate with re-calculating priority factors to select thePDCCH candidates to skip from monitoring until a total number of PDCCHcandidates and a number of CCEs in the slot for channel estimation fitwithin a predefined value for the threshold level of blind decodingoperations.

Example 31 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 23-30,wherein the priority factor is based on a control resource set index, asearch space index, an aggregation level from a defined aggregationlevel set and the PDCCH candidates for the aggregation level within thesearch space index of the control resource set.

Example 32 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 23-31,wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: skip thenumber of PDCCH candidates from monitoring that are within a lowerpriority value range across the search spaces in the slot than otherPDDCH candidates, wherein the lower priority value range is based on aninverse of a total number of PDCCH candidates for an aggregation levelwithin a search space index of a control resource set.

Example 33 is an apparatus configured to be employed in a nextgeneration NodeB (gNB) for new radio (NR) communications comprising: oneor more processors configured to: configure physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH) in different search spaces independently from oneanother in a slot for monitoring; reduce a number of blind decodingattempts and control channel elements (CCEs) for channel estimation inthe slot to satisfy a threshold level of blind decoding attempts acrossa plurality of slots; a radio frequency (RF) interface, configured toprovide, to RF circuitry, data for a transmission of the PDCCH.

Example 34 includes the subject matter of Example 33, wherein the one ormore processors are further configured to: reduce the number of blinddecoding attempts and the CCEs in the slot by dropping a number of PDCCHcandidates of the PDCCH based on at least one of: a type of searchspace, an aggregation level, or a data control information (DCI) formatin the search space, in response to a total number of blind decodingattempts or CCEs across one or more search spaces in a slot exceedingthe threshold level.

Example 35 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 33-34,wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: generatean indication of a priority order for dropping PDCCH candidates within asearch space of the slot in response to a total number of blind decodingattempts or CCEs across one or more search spaces in a slot exceedingthe threshold level.

Example 36 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 33-35,wherein the indication indicates that the priority order starts from ahighest AL to a lowest AL, or from the lowest AL to the highest AL, fordetermining which of the PDCCH candidates to drop first.

Example 37 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 33-36,wherein the priority order is based on an order of types of radionetwork temporary identifiers for common search spaces in the slot.

Example 38 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 33-37,wherein the priority order is based on an order of a search space typein the slot, the search space types comprising a common search spaces(CCSs) and a UE-specific search (USS) space.

Example 39 is a computer readable storage device storing executableinstructions that, in response to execution, cause one or moreprocessors of a user equipment (UE) to perform operations, theoperations comprising: processing physical downlink control channel(PDCCH) candidates of a PDCCH in a slot to perform channel estimationacross search spaces in the slot; selectively determining a number ofPDCCH candidates to be dropped from monitoring based on a priority ruleand different priorities of the PDCCH candidates; and satisfying athreshold level of blind decoding operations across a plurality of slotsof the PDCCH by monitoring at least a portion of the PDCCH candidateswhile concurrently skipping another portion of the PDCCH candidatescomprising the number of PDCCH candidates in the slot.

Example 40 includes the subject matter of Example 39, wherein theoperations further comprise: determining whether a total number of PDCCHcandidates or a total number of control channel elements (CCEs) in theslot exceeds a predefined value for the threshold level of blinddecoding operations; calculating priority factors for aggregation levelsin a search space and a control resource set; based on the determinationand the priority factors, selecting the number of PDCCH candidates to beskipped to satisfy the predefined value.

Example 41 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 39-40,wherein the operations further comprise: in response to a blind decodingbudget and a CCE budget being exceeded, selectively determining thenumber of PDCCH candidates to be skipped from monitoring by a two-stepmechanism comprising: skipping the another portion of the PDCCHcandidates starting with the PDCCH candidates at a lowest aggregationlevel (AL) from among the ALs of the search spaces in the slot to reducethe blind decoding operations; and skipping a PDCCH candidate at ahigher AL, or a lower AL, from among the ALs of the search spaces thatsatisfies the CCE budget.

Example 42 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 39-41,wherein the priority rule indicates that a PDCCH candidate with a lowerAL or a higher AL than other PDCCH candidates of the PDCCH candidates,and further that a lower PDCCH candidate index or a higher PDCCHcandidate index in a search space of the slot is selected first fordropping; or wherein that the PDCCH candidate in the lower AL thatreduces the largest number of CCEs in the slot is to be selected fordropping.

Example 43 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 39-42,wherein the operations further comprise: determining a number of blinddecoding (BD) attempts for a search space based on the PDCCH candidatesof UE-specific search spaces (USSs) in the slot that are configured by aradio resource control (RRC) signaling and a maximum number of PDCCHcandidates in the USSs per slot; and determining a number of CCEs forchannel estimation in the search space based on CCEs across USS controlresource sets (CORESETs) and a predefined maximum number of CCEs.

Example 44 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 39-43,wherein the priority rule comprises a priority order to take intoaccount for selectively determining the number of PDCCH candidates to bedropped from monitoring, the priority order comprising: a decreasingorder for CSS comprising: Type 0-PDCCH CSS for a DCI format with CRCscrambled by a SI-RNTI Type 1-PDCCH CSS for a DCI format with CRCscrambled by a random access (RA) radio network temporary identifier(RNTI) (RA-RNTI)>Type 2-PDCCH CSS for a DCI format with CRC scrambled bya paging RNTI (P-RNTI)>Type 3-PDCCH CSS for a DCI format with CRCscrambled by an interruption RNTI (INT-RNTI), a slot format indicationRNTI (SFI-RNTI), transmit power control (TPC) physical uplink sharedchannel (PUSCH) RNTI (TPC-PUSCH-RNTI), TPC-physical uplink controlchannel PUCCH) RNTI, TPC-sounding reference signal (SRS)-RNTI, a cellRNTI (C-RNTI), a configured scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI), temporary cellRNTI (TC-RNTI), or a semi-persistent channel state information RNTI(SP-CSI-RNTI).

Example 45 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 39-44,wherein the priority rule comprises a priority order to take intoaccount for selectively determining the number of PDCCH candidates to bedropped from monitoring, the priority order comprising: a carriercomponent (CC) Index>bandwidth part (BWP) index>CSS>USS.

Examples can include one or more non-transitory computer-readable mediacomprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution ofthe instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, toperform one or more elements of a method described in or related to anyof examples above, or any other method or process described herein.

Examples can include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, orcircuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in orrelated to any of examples above, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Examples can include a method, technique, or process as described in orrelated to any of examples above, or portions or parts thereof.

Examples can include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors andone or more computer readable media comprising instructions that, whenexecuted by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processorsto perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or relatedto any of examples above, or portions thereof.

Examples can include a method of communicating in a wireless network asshown and described herein.

Examples can include a system for providing wireless communication asshown and described herein.

Examples can include a device for providing wireless communication asshown and described herein.

Various illustrative logics, logical blocks, modules, and circuitsdescribed in connection with aspects disclosed herein can be implementedor performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signalprocessor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), afield programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device,discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or anycombination thereof designed to perform functions described herein. Ageneral-purpose processor can be a microprocessor, but, in thealternative, processor can be any conventional processor, controller,microcontroller, or state machine. A processor can also be implementedas a combination of computing devices, for example, a combination of aDSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or moremicroprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration. Additionally, at least one processor can comprise one ormore modules operable to perform one or more of the s and/or actionsdescribed herein.

For a software implementation, techniques described herein can beimplemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) thatperform functions described herein. Software codes can be stored inmemory units and executed by processors. Memory unit can be implementedwithin processor or external to processor, in which case memory unit canbe communicatively coupled to processor through various means as isknown in the art. Further, at least one processor can include one ormore modules operable to perform functions described herein.

Techniques described herein can be used for various wirelesscommunication systems such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA and othersystems. The terms “system” and “network” are often usedinterchangeably. A CDMA system can implement a radio technology such asUniversal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), CDMA1800, etc. UTRA includesWideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) and other variants of CDMA. Further, CDMA1800covers IS-1800, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. A TDMA system can implementa radio technology such as Global System for Mobile

Communications (GSM). An OFDMA system can implement a radio technologysuch as Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.14(Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.18, etc. UTRA and E-UTRA are partof Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). 3GPP Long TermEvolution (LTE) is a release of UMTS that uses E-UTRA, which employsOFDMA on downlink and SC-FDMA on uplink. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE and GSMare described in documents from an organization named “3rd GenerationPartnership Project” (3GPP). Additionally, CDMA1800 and UMB aredescribed in documents from an organization named “3rd GenerationPartnership Project 2” (3GPP2). Further, such wireless communicationsystems can additionally include peer-to-peer (e.g., mobile-to-mobile)ad hoc network systems often using unpaired unlicensed spectrums, 802.xxwireless LAN, BLUETOOTH and any other short- or long-range, wirelesscommunication techniques.

Single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA), whichutilizes single carrier modulation and frequency domain equalization isa technique that can be utilized with the disclosed aspects. SC-FDMA hassimilar performance and essentially a similar overall complexity asthose of OFDMA system. SC-FDMA signal has lower peak-to-average powerratio (PAPR) because of its inherent single carrier structure. SC-FDMAcan be utilized in uplink communications where lower PAPR can benefit amobile terminal in terms of transmit power efficiency.

Moreover, various aspects or features described herein can beimplemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture usingstandard programming and/or engineering techniques. The term “article ofmanufacture” as used herein is intended to encompass a computer programaccessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or media. Forexample, computer-readable media can include but are not limited tomagnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strips,etc.), optical disks (e.g., compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk(DVD), etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., EPROM, card,stick, key drive, etc.). Additionally, various storage media describedherein can represent one or more devices and/or other machine-readablemedia for storing information. The term “machine-readable medium” caninclude, without being limited to, wireless channels and various othermedia capable of storing, containing, and/or carrying instruction(s)and/or data. Additionally, a computer program product can include acomputer readable medium having one or more instructions or codesoperable to cause a computer to perform functions described herein.

Communications media embody computer-readable instructions, datastructures, program modules or other structured or unstructured data ina data signal such as a modulated data signal, e.g., a carrier wave orother transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery ortransport media. The term “modulated data signal” or signals refers to asignal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed insuch a manner as to encode information in one or more signals. By way ofexample, and not limitation, communication media include wired media,such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless mediasuch as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media.

Further, the actions of a method or algorithm described in connectionwith aspects disclosed herein can be embodied directly in hardware, in asoftware module executed by a processor, or a combination thereof. Asoftware module can reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory,EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, a hard disk, a removable disk, aCD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. Anexemplary storage medium can be coupled to processor, such thatprocessor can read information from, and write information to, storagemedium. In the alternative, storage medium can be integral to processor.Further, in some aspects, processor and storage medium can reside in anASIC. Additionally, ASIC can reside in a user terminal. In thealternative, processor and storage medium can reside as discretecomponents in a user terminal. Additionally, in some aspects, the sand/or actions of a method or algorithm can reside as one or anycombination or set of codes and/or instructions on a machine-readablemedium and/or computer readable medium, which can be incorporated into acomputer program product.

The above description of illustrated embodiments of the subjectdisclosure, including what is described in the Abstract, is not intendedto be exhaustive or to limit the disclosed embodiments to the preciseforms disclosed. While specific embodiments and examples are describedherein for illustrative purposes, various modifications are possiblethat are considered within the scope of such embodiments and examples,as those skilled in the relevant art can recognize.

In this regard, while the disclosed subject matter has been described inconnection with various embodiments and corresponding Figures, whereapplicable, it is to be understood that other similar embodiments can beused or modifications and additions can be made to the describedembodiments for performing the same, similar, alternative, or substitutefunction of the disclosed subject matter without deviating therefrom.Therefore, the disclosed subject matter should not be limited to anysingle embodiment described herein, but rather should be construed inbreadth and scope in accordance with the appended claims below.

In particular regard to the various functions performed by the abovedescribed components (assemblies, devices, circuits, systems, etc.), theterms (including a reference to a “means”) used to describe suchcomponents are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, toany component or structure which performs the specified function of thedescribed component (e.g., that is functionally equivalent), even thoughnot structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure which performsthe function in the herein illustrated exemplary implementations of thedisclosure. In addition, while a particular feature can have beendisclosed with respect to only one of several implementations, suchfeature can be combined with one or more other features of the otherimplementations as can be desired and advantageous for any given orparticular application.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus configured to be employed in a UserEquipment (UE) for new radio (NR) communications comprising: one or moreprocessors configured to: receive physical downlink control channel(PDCCH) candidates of a PDCCH in a slot to perform channel estimationacross search spaces of the slot; determine different priorities amongthe PDCCH candidates in the slot based on a priority rule; selectivelydetermine a number of PDCCH candidates to be skipped from monitoringbased on the different priorities of the PDCCH candidates to ensure thata threshold level of blind decoding operations across a plurality ofslots of the PDCCH is being satisfied; and monitor a portion of thePDCCH candidates while concurrently skipping another portion of thePDCCH candidates comprising the number of PDCCH candidates in the slot;a radio frequency (RF) interface, configured to provide, to RFcircuitry, data for processing the PDCCH candidates.
 2. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:generate a determination of whether a total number of PDCCH candidatesor a total number of control channel elements (CCEs) in the slot exceedsa predefined value for the threshold level of blind decoding operations;and based on the determination, select the number of PDCCH candidates tobe skipped to satisfy the predefined value.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the priority rule comprises a set of criteria comprising one ormore of: a search space type from among the search spaces comprising acommon search space (CSS) and a UE-specific search space (USS), anaggregation level (AL), a predefined priority order, a PDCCH candidateindex, a search space index, a component carrier (CC) index, or abandwidth part index, for determining the priorities of the PDCCHcandidates.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the priority ruleindicates that CSSs of the search spaces comprise a higher priority thanUSSs of the search spaces in the slot.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: prioritizethe search spaces according to a search space index configured for thesearch spaces by a higher layer signaling in response to the prioritiescomprising a plurality of CSSs or a plurality of USSs with a samepriority.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or moreprocessors are further configured to: determine the priorities of thePDCCH candidates in the slot based on a higher layer signaling providingthat a lower AL, or a higher AL, for PDCCH candidates are dropped frommonitoring first in a priority order.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:selectively determine the number of PDCCH candidates to be skipped frommonitoring by a two-step mechanism comprising: starting with the PDCCHcandidates at a lowest AL, or a highest AL, from among the ALs of thesearch spaces in the slot to reduce the blind decoding operations; andin response to a blind decoding budget or the threshold level of blinddecoding operations being satisfied, skipping a PDCCH candidate at ahighest AL, or a lowest AL, from among the ALs of the search spaces tosatisfy a CCE budget.
 8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one ormore processors are further configured to: compute a priority factor forthe PDCCH candidates in a USS of the search spaces; skip from monitoringa subset of the PDCCH candidates in a plurality of control CORESETS andUE-specific search spaces of the search spaces that is selected based onpriority values of a priority order of a set of criteria; and iteratewith re-calculating priority factors to select the PDCCH candidates toskip from monitoring until a total number of PDCCH candidates and anumber of CCEs in the slot for channel estimation fit within apredefined value for the threshold level of blind decoding operations.9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the priority factor is based on acontrol resource set index, a search space index, an aggregation levelfrom a defined aggregation level set and the PDCCH candidates for theaggregation level within the search space index of the control resourceset.
 10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processorsare further configured to: skip the number of PDCCH candidates frommonitoring that are within a lower priority value range across thesearch spaces in the slot than other PDDCH candidates, wherein the lowerpriority value range is based on an inverse of a total number of PDCCHcandidates for an aggregation level within a search space index of acontrol resource set.
 11. An apparatus configured to be employed in anext generation NodeB (gNB) for new radio (NR) communicationscomprising: one or more processors configured to: configure physicaldownlink control channel (PDCCH) in different search spacesindependently from one another in a slot for monitoring; reduce a numberof blind decoding attempts and control channel elements (CCEs) forchannel estimation in the slot to satisfy a threshold level of blinddecoding attempts across a plurality of slots; a radio frequency (RF)interface, configured to provide, to RF circuitry, data for atransmission of the PDCCH.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein theone or more processors are further configured to: reduce the number ofblind decoding attempts and the CCEs in the slot by dropping a number ofPDCCH candidates of the PDCCH based on at least one of: a type of searchspace, an aggregation level, or a data control information (DCI) formatin the search space, in response to a total number of blind decodingattempts or CCEs across one or more search spaces in a slot exceedingthe threshold level.
 13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one ormore processors are further configured to: generate an indication of apriority order for dropping PDCCH candidates within a search space ofthe slot in response to a total number of blind decoding attempts orCCEs across one or more search spaces in a slot exceeding the thresholdlevel.
 14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the indication indicatesthat the priority order starts from a highest AL to a lowest AL, or fromthe lowest AL to the highest AL, for determining which of the PDCCHcandidates to drop first.
 15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein thepriority order is based on an order of types of radio network temporaryidentifiers for common search spaces in the slot.
 16. The apparatus ofclaim 13, wherein the priority order is based on an order of a searchspace type in the slot, the search space types comprising a commonsearch spaces (CCSs) and a UE-specific search (USS) space.
 17. Acomputer readable storage device storing executable instructions that,in response to execution, cause one or more processors of a userequipment (UE) to perform operations, the operations comprising:processing physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates of aPDCCH in a slot to perform channel estimation across search spaces inthe slot; selectively determining a number of PDCCH candidates to bedropped from monitoring based on a priority rule and differentpriorities of the PDCCH candidates; and satisfying a threshold level ofblind decoding operations across a plurality of slots of the PDCCH bymonitoring at least a portion of the PDCCH candidates while concurrentlyskipping another portion of the PDCCH candidates comprising the numberof PDCCH candidates in the slot.
 18. The computer readable storagedevice of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise: determiningwhether a total number of PDCCH candidates or a total number of controlchannel elements (CCEs) in the slot exceeds a predefined value for thethreshold level of blind decoding operations; calculating priorityfactors for aggregation levels in a search space and a control resourceset; based on the determination and the priority factors, selecting thenumber of PDCCH candidates to be skipped to satisfy the predefinedvalue.
 19. The computer readable storage device of claim 17, wherein theoperations further comprise: in response to a blind decoding budget anda CCE budget being exceeded, selectively determining the number of PDCCHcandidates to be skipped from monitoring by a two-step mechanismcomprising: skipping the another portion of the PDCCH candidatesstarting with the PDCCH candidates at a lowest aggregation level (AL)from among the ALs of the search spaces in the slot to reduce the blinddecoding operations; and skipping a PDCCH candidate at a higher AL, or alower AL, from among the ALs of the search spaces that satisfies the CCEbudget.
 20. The computer readable storage device of claim 17, whereinthe priority rule indicates that a PDCCH candidate with a lower AL or ahigher AL than other PDCCH candidates of the PDCCH candidates, andfurther that a lower PDCCH candidate index or a higher PDCCH candidateindex in a search space of the slot is selected first for dropping; orwherein that the PDCCH candidate in the lower AL that reduces thelargest number of CCEs in the slot is to be selected for dropping. 21.The computer readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the operationsfurther comprise: determining a number of blind decoding (BD) attemptsfor a search space based on the PDCCH candidates of UE-specific searchspaces (USSs) in the slot that are configured by a radio resourcecontrol (RRC) signaling and a maximum number of PDCCH candidates in theUSSs per slot; and determining a number of CCEs for channel estimationin the search space based on CCEs across USS control resource sets(CORESETs) and a predefined maximum number of CCEs.
 22. The computerreadable storage device of claim 17, wherein the priority rule comprisesa priority order to take into account for selectively determining thenumber of PDCCH candidates to be dropped from monitoring, the priorityorder comprising: a decreasing order for CSS comprising: Type 0-PDCCHCSS for a DCI format with CRC scrambled by a SI-RNTI Type 1-PDCCH CSSfor a DCI format with CRC scrambled by a random access (RA) radionetwork temporary identifier (RNTI) (RA-RNTI)>Type 2-PDCCH CSS for a DCIformat with CRC scrambled by a paging RNTI (P-RNTI)>Type 3-PDCCH CSS fora DCI format with CRC scrambled by an interruption RNTI (INT-RNTI), aslot format indication RNTI (SFI-RNTI), transmit power control (TPC)physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) RNTI (TPC-PUSCH-RNTI),TPC-physical uplink control channel PUCCH) RNTI, TPC-sounding referencesignal (SRS)-RNTI, a cell RNTI (C-RNTI), a configured scheduling RNTI(CS-RNTI), temporary cell RNTI (TC-RNTI), or a semi-persistent channelstate information RNTI (SP-CSI-RNTI).
 23. The computer readable storagedevice of claim 17, wherein the priority rule comprises a priority orderto take into account for selectively determining the number of PDCCHcandidates to be dropped from monitoring, the priority order comprising:a carrier component (CC) Index>bandwidth part (BWP) index>CSS>USS.